THE BOY WHO COULD CHANGE THE WORLD: THE WRITINGS OF AARON SWARTZ by Aaron Swartz The New Press

[Rayzer]

coderman wrote:
> https://newrepublic.com/article/126674/reading-everything-aaron-swartz-wrote
> '''
> ... In a way, Aaron is a cautionary tale for unschooling. One of the
> lessons that school teaches is that the people who make the rules
> don’t really have to follow them. It’s something even the most
> rebellious students learn one way or another, but Aaron looked up a
> different set of rules and hacked his way out of school instead. On
> one hand Aaron was happy with his choice and felt more engaged and
> happier with online peers, on the other he absorbed a dangerous lesson
> about navigating bureaucratic systems. Plenty of legal scholars and
> technology experts thought Aaron had kept on the right side of the
> letter of the law, but the criminal justice system is resistant to the
> kind of hacking he tended to practice. I don’t know if he considered
> fleeing the country, but I doubt it. Maybe if he had lived to see
> Edward Snowden make dodging extradition look good, things would have
> been different.
>
> I was surprised when I saw the security footage of Aaron entering the
> MIT building, his bike helmet held half-heartedly in front of his
> face, his telltale hair poking out the sides. I had read the
> Manifesto, but I didn’t think it really reflected Aaron’s intentions.
> I was worried about what could happen to him, but not that worried. I
> figured he had enough institutional support to keep his punishment to
> a slap on the wrist. Mostly I was angry that he hadn’t taken what he
> was doing seriously enough; with a team and a little bit of planning,
> there’s no reason the authorities should have been able to tie Aaron
> to the action. But covert ops wasn’t one of his strengths, and he
> never got the chance to learn.
>
> If I’m part of the we that counted on Aaron, then I’m also part of the
> we that failed him. I thought his connections and credibility and
> reputation would keep him safe, and maybe he did too. Maybe we
> convinced him that a boy like him could change the world, or at least
> always hack an escape route. But there’s no individual who can’t be
> picked off if they cross the wrong line, or just the wrong prosecutor.
> '''
>
>

“A revolutionary is a dead man on furlough.” ~V.I Lenin

-- 
RR

"You might want to ask an expert about that - I just fiddled around
with mine until it worked..."


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