The Last Thing in the World

In a conflict of biblical proportions, Larry Lessig finds himself pitted against his Harvard colleague, Phil Heymann, the father of the US Assistant Prosecutor, Stephen Heymann, whose remorseless persecution of the young Internet activist ended in the tragic suicide of Aaron Swartz.

The elder Professor Heymann has delivered a paper at a Harvard faculty workshop criticizing the views of Professor Lessig and others.

In a recent blog post, Professor Lessig has directed his followers to his response to Professor Heymann, comprising a somewhat technical point-by-point commentary and rebuttal.

The gist of Professor Lessig's response is that he is not persuaded by Professor Heymann's legalistic arguments defending the prosecution of Aaron Swartz. In closing, Professor Lessig writes, "I desperately await the time when the need for me to confront and address this tragedy will have passed, even though I recognize, as I suspect you would as well, the loss never will."

Here is my follow-up commentary on Larry's Lessig's blog:


The Last Thing in the World

There is an insightful model of the Five Big Personality Traits of Successful Managers. They go by the acronym OCEAN:

• Openness

• Conscientiousness

• Extraversion

• Agreeableness

• Neuroticism

Of these, the second one is the one particularly interesting to me.

When I was in grammar school, my second-grade teacher, Mrs. Brown, wrote on my report card a big word that I didn't know. I had to ask my parents what it was. The word was "Conscientious". It was the first 4-syllable word I ever learned.

There is a Sixth Trait not listed among the Big Five.

The Sixth Trait is Insight.

The Seventh Trait is Compassion.

Put them all together, you get OCEANIC.

I reckon that successful business managers, academics, and government officials have at least five of those seven traits.

There are two more character traits that are worth mentioning, elusive as they often are. The Eighth Trait is Absolution.

The Ninth is Love.

Put all nine together, you get OCEANICAL.

Many of us are still looking for the last two.


Five of Seven, meet Seven of Nine

Larry, in your recent TED Talk, you ended on the Ninth Note.

Please help me out here, Larry. How do we evolve to Absolution and Love, when we are reckoning a collegial (if not congenial) adversary whose unshakable core philosophy has lamentably annihilated our spirit and sacrificed our beloved child?

How big of a tsunami will it take for our culture to become OCEANICAL?