Extremism Begets Extremism

Here is an extremely good argument by Lawrence Lessig for rethinking copyright law. This is the best thing I've ever seen on this topic. It is enough to break your heart when you watch it:



If you liked the above, then you will enjoy this personal confessional by Larry Lessig:



What I really, really like about this second video is the cautionary tale that Lessig makes: don't trust labels. He demonstrates the Democrats are the "evil doers" of copyright law, not Republicans. This is extraordinary. Everybody knows that Republicans are the greedy owners of capital and the exploiters of labour while the Democrats hold up the workers as the exploited class needing government protection. But as Lessig tells the tale, the roles are reversed. History is surprising. Labels lie. Truth is hidden. And you have to work hard all the time to understand the world around you.

Nothing is what it seems. Truth is elusive. Freedom is not free. Each generation has to fight to have its day in the sun.

This is a wonderful tale. In my mind Lessig has woven a tale for this generation about the battle that has begun and must be fought. He cautions that the goal is cryptic and elusive, that friends may be foes, that the goal is not a gleaming chalice of truth but a more complex balance of forces of light and dark, a dynamic tension between the money making class and the shoeless peasant creators. The struggle continues, and will continue, and continue still further into the endless mists of time.