from Hacker News

A message from Lawrence Lessig [video]

by irabinovitch1 on 2/27/14, 8:19 PM with 39 comments

• by rayiner on 2/27/14, 9:44 PM

  There's a conceit among technologists that Washington doesn't know how technology works. I don't think this is true. In my experience with the federal government, I have been quite amazed at how much people did understand. Washington is full of nerds. They are often latin majors rather than computer science majors, but they are nerds nonetheless, and they are sharp and quick learners.

  What is missing is not people who are "technically enabled." Rather, it's people who share the values many technologists share. You can understand how TCP/IP works without buying into the philosophies pertaining to an open and neutral internet. And its those people that seem to shy away from participating in politics. Not people who can describe what happens when a packet gets dropped, but people who can articulate why its better to have an internet that doesn't drop packets based on who sent them.

• by izendejas on 2/28/14, 8:29 AM

  Holy shit! How does this not have thousands of upvotes?

  It's a masterful presentation -- the likes of which I haven't seen before. I reckon I got a similar feeling that so many did when they heard MLK speak. If you read about leadership, this is it folks. You tell very compelling stories that inspire you to action not because you want to follow the likes of Lawrence Lessig, but because you believe this cause is very important. For someone to kindle that passionate response is an art form.

  And then there's the issue. It's a no-brainer: attack the root of countless legislative problems--campaign financing, the corruption.

  I grew up the first part of my life in a country that is terribly corrupt and when I look at the US, the place I now call home, the only difference that I see, is that it's legal here. I was outraged at the Citizens United decision--in my mind, that was one of the worst decisions ever because it continues to legitimize a farce of democracy that we live under today.

  tl;dw (ie, too long didn't watch): watch it for a lesson on leadership and get outraged at campaign financing!

  edited: typos, toned down the hyperbole to avoid distracting from the message.

• by IvyMike on 2/27/14, 9:58 PM

  It's always interesting me to take the passion and fury of online discussions about politics and freedom and to reconcile that with the comparatively paltry amount of money donated to political organizations by people in silicon valley.

  I think there's this feeling in Silicon Valley that "I'm changing the world through code" or "I believe the best ideas should win". And I wish that were the case. But in the meanwhile the Koch Brothers and hollywood quietly funnel bajillions of dollars into superpacs and get all the politicians in their pockets.

  (I saw Lessig give this excellent talk at SCALE, and my take away from his talk is that we should remove the need for politicians to whore themselves out for money. And I strongly agree. But I guess I'm saying that in the meanwhile, if that's how the game is played, we need to put more skin in the game.)

• by startupfounder on 2/27/14, 10:22 PM

  30%-70% of our government representative's time is spent calling the 0.05% (150k people) of US citizens to raise money to get re-elected.

  Our Republic is a Representative Democracy (not a true democracy) where there are 2 election cycles, the "Funders" and the voters. As a representative you can't get your name on the ballot in the voting cycle unless you pass the "Funders" cycle.

  This is a closed source program where one has to "lean to the green", towards the 0.05% of people who have the money, to play.

  NH is the KEY! Isolate 50,000 people in New Hampshire who say, "What will you do to end the system of corruption in Washington?" 50,000 people will swing the vote.

  How can technology help isolate those 50k people? What apps can we build? What networks can we build?

• by colinwinter on 2/27/14, 10:34 PM

  THANKS for sharing this. Wouldn't have discovered it otherwise and definitely a positive refresher with new points beyond his TED talk.

  For anyone still sitting-on/queuing/water-latering Lessig's main TED talk on money in politics, as a vidder I created a remix of it to help improve engagement and intensity, using soundtracks by Zack Hemsey and a few video clips from other sources for support:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB-vGYR8S58 I never really shared it beyond the organizers behind Lessig so I hope someone more useful than the avg youtuber can benefit from it here...

• by arghbleargh on 2/27/14, 9:57 PM

  For the benefit of those who can't/don't want to watch the video, can someone summarize what Lessig's "cause" is?

  EDIT: More specifically, I am wondering why he's calling for the help of "technically enabled" people. What is the relevance of technology here?

• by fossuser on 2/27/14, 9:49 PM

  If you haven't seen Lawrence Lessig's other talk about campaign financing creating a second dependency within congress on their funders in addition to the people, it's worth watching.

  www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim.html

• by btgeekboy on 2/27/14, 9:05 PM

  I had the privilege of attending this talk in person last weekend.

  I'm generally very apathetic about politics in general, and have no interest in participating. By the end of this session, though, I think that may have changed. I'm not quite sure how I want to participate quite yet, but the seed's been planted.

• by teamdemocracy on 2/28/14, 3:49 AM

  For those in the SF Bay Area, we are having a hackathon the weekend of March 29–30 in San Francisco. We will be working on tools to support Lawrence Lessig, the NH Rebellion organization, and their grassroots movement to end the system of corruption in DC. If you're interested in participating, hit us up at teamdemocracyus@gmail.com and we'll send you the details.

• by adamfeldman on 2/27/14, 10:35 PM

  So, is the question how can technology greatly reduce the costs of campaigning? Would this allow for campaign finance reform where more restrictions are placed on candidates in return for funds and publicly funded technology tools to enable far smarter campaigns (like what Obama's re-election team did with voter turnout)? Could technology change the costs of voter outreach to a point where the funders become irrelevant?

• by spoiledtechie on 2/28/14, 12:40 AM

  Lawrence is by far one of the most important thought provokers of our century. This man is on his way into history.