I am a fan of Larry Lessig's blog, but it is his recent short opinion piece in Wired that moved me to tears. It is unlikely to move you to the same degree, but his message is one that I have become evermore convinced is the essential missing priority that will be required if we are to survive the next few decades. It is my deepest prayer that humanity will embrace this way of thinking as soon as possible.
This is the core message:
If we can't defend against an attack, perhaps the rational response is to reduce the incentives to attack. Rather than designing space suits, maybe we should focus on ways to eliminate the reasons to annihilate us. 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.
And later, Larry warns: "Our present course of unilateral cowboyism will continue to produce generations of angry souls seeking revenge on us."
Amen.
