In his recent Wired editorial, Lawrence Lessig says:

If we can’t defend against an attack, perhaps the rational response is to reduce the incentives to attack. [...] Rather than stirring up a hornet’s nest and then hiding behind a bush, maybe the solution is to avoid the causes of rage. Crazies, of course, can’t be reasoned with. But we can reduce the incentives to become a crazy. We could reduce the reasonableness – from a certain perspective – for finding ways to destroy us.

The point produced a depressing recognition. There’s a logic to P2P threats that we as a society don’t yet get. Like the record companies against the Internet, our first response is war. But like the record companies, that response will be either futile or self-destructive. If you can’t control the supply of IDDs, then the right response is to reduce the demand for IDDs. Yet as everyone in the class understood, in the four years since Joy wrote his Wired piece, we’ve done precisely the opposite. Our present course of unilateral cowboyism will continue to produce generations of angry souls seeking revenge on us.

Why don’t more people realize the truth of this very simple idea? You cannot destroy everyone who doesn’t like you because there will always be people willing to put more on the line than you can afford or are willing to. Even if you were willing to throw everything you have in the fight, were would that lead you? Mutual destruction at best…

More of the same (via mrbarrett.com). Damien says his “stomache [sic] hurts from reading” the article from which the following is excerpted:

Citing how “assaults before major votes have [traditionally] benefited candidates who were seen as tougher on terrorists,” Rothkopf catalogued events in Israel, Russia, Turkey and Sri Lanka before explaining the symbiotic relationship between terrorists and hardliners. “So why would [terrorists] want to help [hardliners] win?” he asked. “Perhaps because terrorists see the attacks as a win-win. They can lash out against their perceived enemies and empower the hard-liners, who in turn empower them as terrorists. How? Hard-liners strike back more broadly, making it easier for terrorists as they attempt to justify their causes and their methods.”

I have been feeling pretty queazy myself about what’s going on with the world in general and the USA specifically lately… and honestly, those who don’t should take a closer look at what’s going on: when the leader of the most powerful country in the world allows himself to joke (via Boing Boing) about one of the reasons for war in Iraq, you know something is really wrong. Heck! Why do I care, we’re all doomed anyway… With that said, Happy Easter!

The Legend of Ashitaka Theme (End Credit) from the album Mononoke Hime (Soundtrack) by Joe Hisaishi

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