It’s all about owning things

18 Jan 2013

In a discussion I was having the other day, we talked about how George Carlin seems to have it all figured out. I had a quote of his in mind, but couldn’t remember enough of it to find it. Eventually, after having given up, I found it.

War is rich old men protecting their property by sending middle class and low class young men off to die. It’s all about owning things. - George Carlin

A couple of days later I learned of Aaron Swartz’s suicide. I’ve been sick about the news ever since, but something struck me a few days ago.

It really is all about owning things.

I can’t say for sure what drove Aaron to suicide. As other’s have written, he might have made this choice under different circumstances, but many have expressed concern that the threat of extreme penalties in this case may have convinced Aaron he had no other choice.

Elliot Peters, lead counsel for Aaron Swartz, spoke openly about the over zealous prosecution of this case.

“There was such rigidity with the people we were dealing with,” Peters said. “I couldn’t find anyone in that office to talk about proportionality and humanity. It was driven by a desire to turn this into a significant case, so that some prosecutor could put it in his portfolio.”

Peters stopped short of blaming prosecutors for Swartz’s suicide.

“I’m too much a student of human nature to ascribe a 26-year-old’s suicide to any one thing,” Peters said. “Only God and Aaron know why that happened.” - Boston Globe

In Tuesday’s blog post, Philip Greenspun shares a thought from a book that points out that the threat of these unreasonable penalties amounts to torture. It’s a strong argument. How many people have the guts to face 100 years in prison when compared to a “deal” of 12-15 years? A very good question indeed.

Matt Stoller, in an excellent piece about Aaron’s politics, reminds us that this is a flaw in our system.

Aaron suffered from depression, but that is not why he died. Aaron is dead because the institutions that govern our society have decided that it is more important to target geniuses like Aaron than nurture them, because the values he sought – openness, justice, curiosity – are values these institutions now oppose. In previous generations, people like Aaron would have been treasured and recognized as the remarkable gifts they are. We do not live in a world like that today. And Aaron would be the first to point out, if he could observe the discussion happening now, that the pressure he felt from the an oppressive government is felt by millions of people, every year. I’m glad his family have not let the justice system off the hook, and have not allowed this suicide to be medicalized, or the fault of one prosecutor. What happened to Aaron is not isolated to Aaron, but is the flip side of the corruption he hated.

As we think about what happened to Aaron, we need to recognize that it was not just prosecutorial overreach that killed him. That’s too easy, because that implies it’s one bad apple. We know that’s not true. What killed him was corruption. Corruption isn’t just people profiting from betraying the public interest. It’s also people being punished for upholding the public interest. In our institutions of power, when you do the right thing and challenge abusive power, you end up destroying a job prospect, an economic opportunity, a political or social connection, or an opportunity for media. Or if you are truly dangerous and brilliantly subversive, as Aaron was, you are bankrupted and destroyed. There’s a reason whistleblowers get fired. There’s a reason Bradley Manning is in jail. There’s a reason the only CIA official who has gone to jail for torture is the person – John Kiriako – who told the world it was going on. There’s a reason those who destroyed the financial system “dine at the White House”, as Lawrence Lessig put it. There’s a reason former Senator Russ Feingold is a college professor whereas former Senator Chris Dodd is now a multi-millionaire. There’s a reason DOJ officials do not go after bankers who illegally foreclose, and then get jobs as partners in white collar criminal defense. There’s a reason no one has been held accountable for decisions leading to the financial crisis, or the war in Iraq. This reason is the modern ethic in American society that defines success as climbing up the ladder, consequences be damned. Corrupt self-interest, when it goes systemwide, demands that it protect rentiers from people like Aaron, that it intimidate, co-opt, humiliate, fire, destroy, and/or bankrupt those who stand for justice. - Matt Stoller

The fact that MIT made this out to be a crime that costs millions of dollars is both laughable, and beside the point. Why must we punish these crimes with such unspeakable penalties?

Because it really is about owning things.

access to knowledge and access to justice have become all about access to money, and Aaron tried to change that. That should never have been considered a criminal activity. - Carl Malamud, founder of public.resource.org, in the New York Times

I remember when Jim Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison for his crime of over selling reservations or whatever they were at his theme park or whatever he thought it was. I remember thinking at the time how unfair it was. Make no mistake – I was never a supporter of Jim Bakker. I actually visited Heritage USA as a kid twice but that doesn’t mean I supported him in any way. (BTW, as far as I know, I was the first to break the news of that scandal in Lynchburg, VA – that story is buried in a very long post about something else. ) He and I don’t agree on matters of theology and probably a host of other issues – certainly we disagree on how one should earn a living.

BUT why do financial crimes carry such a steep penalty? I am no expert on these matters, but I have always had questions about the justice system in our country. I’m sure it’s not as simple as all this, but from where I sit it seems that one can commit horrendous crimes like rape and murder and be punished with ridiculously lenient sentences. If, on the other hand, one commits a crime of finance, the punishment is much, much more severe.