FC: Charles Platt on "collectivism" and Larry Lessig's book Code

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

> Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 14:47:03 -0500 (EST)
> From: Charles Platt <cp () sedona net>
> To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
> cc: politech () vorlon mit edu, Charles Platt <cp () sedona net>
> Subject: Collectivism
>
> Declan--
>
> The most important detail in the very interesting book excerpt that you
> quoted is, to me, the word "collectively." When any writer tells me that
> "we must do something" and it should be done "collectively," alarm bells
> go off in my brain--because it is solipsistic, mischievous, and probably
> hypocritical for a writer (that most solitary, often unconventional
> creature) to suggest what "we" should do for "our" benefit, based purely
> on the writer's idiosyncratic views as opposed to a thorough survey of
> public opinion. 
>
> I am also interested that the text you quote contains an implicit
> assumption that a free market is somehow less representative of legitimate
> human desires than a government program. In my experience, most government
> programs are initiated by corrupt techno-illiterates whose feelings of
> self-worth derive from telling other people what to do. This is not an 
> encouraging system for achieving justice in any area, least of all in 
> markets or human environments which involve computer technology.
>
> But the most fascinating suggestion is that the "Declans of Netspace" (I
> am paraphrasing) constitute some kind of juggernaut, more powerful than
> all federal agencies put together. Flattering, but inaccurate. So far as I
> am aware, there is only one Declan at this point, who functions more as a
> voice in the wilderness than as a de-facto master of Net policy; and he 
> has no legal authority and relatively limited financial resources.
>
> Also, by my definition (oh please forgive me, Declan, but I cannot
> resist), the implication that your libertarian naivety stems from youthful
> inexperience is unfair and unjustified, since you're not really that 
> young anymore. 
>
> Truth is in the eye of the beholder; and those who circulate views which 
> contradict our own will always seem bigger, badder, and more powerful 
> than they really are.
>
> Feel free to convey my comments back to the writer you quoted, if you 
> have his email address. You may identify me as a senior writer for Wired 
> magazine (my current title) although of course I'm sure he would regard 
> Wired, like Declan, as another unstoppable, unreasoning antigovernment 
> instrument of agitprop, even though it has published no overtly political 
> articles for a couple of years, now, so far as I am aware.
>
> --Charles




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