Sunday, January 13, 2013

Aaron Swartz and the society of death

I hear words such as innovation, creativity, new ways of thinking, growth, initiative, engaging, effectivization, - you know the whole range of economic buzzwords. you've all heard those words to death.

That's what I hear when those words. Death, death, death, death.

Aaron Swartz is dead.

And with him, many of the buzzwords mentioned above.

We live in a society that de facto doesn't want or approve of the fulfilling of any of these words. That actively punishes those who by any feat of accident or intent happens to do something that could be described by these words.

No, rightists, it's not about the poor being lazy unworkable people who need to be incentivized to work.

No, leftists, it's not about the incessant attacks on labor unions by big capital.

It's about the fact that those who do anything worthy of those buzzwords is actively punished for it. With the least innovative, creative and forward looking of questions in mind:

How shall those who benefit from people living in a situation of low information density continue to get paid for distributing information?

Aaron Swartz is dead.

Pressured to death by a society that is perpetuated, strengthened and armed by those who want anything but innovation or forward thinking. Or any other buzzword that is so often invoked.

Death, death, death. If the present society has anything to say about it.

Let's remix it. Let's build something better. Let's turn the society into our society.

It is the only thing to do. Not only in memory of Aaron, but also as a preventive measure. How many other innovative, creative and forward thinking humans out there aren't there who at this very moment contemplate suicide because society makes its darnedest to imprint on them that they are criminal vermin?

It could have been you. It could have been me. It has most likely happened to someone you loved and lost.

Death, death, death. Enough!

Originally published January 13, 2013

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