Some weeks ago I've cruised on ways unfathomed and learned of things foreign to me. Somehow I ended up at the MakerSpace in Dallas at a meetup on Ventrifuge. I've been thrown into a pool of brilliant, creative techies and my mind feasted on all the curious inventions and ideas people work on. People where talking about hackaton, natural voice recognition, growth hacking, mc10, bionic skin, muse app, founder2be, founder dating, cofounderslab, kickstarter, indiegogo and on.
Back at home, drifting from one concept to another on the wiki pages, one incident caught my attention and has been on my mind for a couple of days (and now weeks). I've learned about the death of Aaron Swartz.
It was only mentioned briefly in relation to an event or a product he helped develop. So, I was curious to learn about what I imagined would be an older guy from the tech world. I never heard of one. We usually get stories on entertainment industry celebrities who are old and pass away. Never an IT celebrity.
Sadly, Aaron was only 26 and he died by taking away his life. Two years from today. This is something that grabbed my heart. Something is utterly wrong here. I ask Why?
I immersed my self in learning about his life, the story around his death, public's reaction to it, and the depression Aaron Shwartz was undergoing.
His action described by Boston Globe underline his genius. He downloaded millions of articles, engaging in "a cat-and-mouse game that would extend over three months. JSTOR would cut off the Internet protocol address Swartz was using; he would switch to another. MIT detected and shut down the registration for his computer; he altered his computer’s identifying information. Officials would conclude the ghost downloader had moved on, then he’d reappear weeks later".
He was relentlessly pursued by the federal prosecution, actions some described as prosecutorial overreach. Sadly, his case was later described as "hardly a clear-cut case" and there seems to have been "a potentially serious flaw in the case against Swartz". After two year of fighting the legal system, charging him with 13 felonies, and threatening him to 35 years in prison, he gave up. Perhaps, too early.
Aaron seemed to have been a wonder of a kid, too smart to just accept thing as they are. Thinking outside the box was part of his DNA. He challenged the system, educational or political, and perhaps was an inconvenience to some.
Thinking outside the box was also the nurturing environment at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where Aaron spent his time. MIT is described as standing for values such as: "compassion and creativity, challenging authority, and pure scientific inquiry". And MIT began to embrace, and celebrate, its hacker ethos, which extrapolates to “resenting any person, physical barrier, or law that tries to keep them from doing this”.
Sadly, MIT did not come forth to speak up for Aaron, when its support was most needed. Nor after his attorneys and his father pleaded with them. Now his father "can’t walk through campus without feeling that MIT betrayed his son".
Furthermore, it seems that MIT, although claiming to take a neutral position, has supported the prosecution by handing over many records and helping the secret service hack into Aaron's computer. This action become more severe in the light of the fact that "MIT has consistently sold itself as a leader on open access to scholarship". As a result, fear swept over the students and faculty. Students were afraid to post on official MIT forums openly. Willow Brugh, a Media Lab research affiliate said, “Why would anyone possibly speak up against an issue like this?... In order to have academic integrity, you need to have to a safe space for people to dissent”.
Aaron's father says:
"Aaron had all these resources. He was bright, he had a very competent legal counsel, he had money, he had a family that supported him, and he was destroyed by the legal system. I was better connected to people at MIT than almost anyone else, right? What happens in these instances where people don’t have these connections and this sort of level of determination? They get completely crushed."The prosecution was as shocked by Aaron's desperate gesture. As an explanation, a representative was quoted as saying that the "rule of law must be applied regardless of someone’s talents, stature, or political beliefs". This is ideal, but is it really applied so? Sadly, it is often overlooked when it comes to money and mutual gain. But not in cases like Aaron's.
My intent in starting to write this was to address the depression issue. So, I will make at least some points at the end. I asked myself: where were his friends and support? A reality is that Aaron has lived more "online than he did with his friends". His father was there fighting for him, so I assume his family. I admire this man and the house of ideas, in which he has raised his sons.
Given such pressures and persecution, even a healthy person would develop depression. It would be hard for anyone to withstand such life threat. Aaron already suffered from depression. Did anybody know about it? Is a prosecutor supposed to take it into account?
The prosecution lacked a good psychologist on board. Someone not specialized just in personality disorders or personality pathology, but also in the variety of healthy personalities. Is there actually a Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) somewhere? Was there anyone to provide a psychological profile? How about something like this:
Aaron Sw., a creative, brilliant genius. Non-conformist thinker. Free spirited and somewhat rebellious. Such people are passionate about what is right - justice, equality, freedom. They will point out the wrongs and fight only for what they believe in. They want their point to be understood, because usually it is backed up with facts and research. Yet, they are very sensitive and fragile and feel things deeply - prone to depression. They pay attention to detail and seek perfection in everything they do. The kind of people you would want to build the planes you fly. :)
Apparently, calling what he did a "felony" and threatening him to 35 years in prison, was way too disproportionate to what he did. It did not make sense. This was not the right way for the prosecution to proceed. They lacked wisdom and discernment.
Overlooked in the whole process was his sensitivity and fragility. He was pushed and not heard. You can pressure a hardcore criminal this way, but certainly you don't use the same methods with everyone. Or do you? This obviously was not a case, where you have to crack someone up to admit something, because they are hiding it or refusing it, even if they know they did it.
The way he was dealt with was not right, it was not fair. And he understood it this way. He made a statement by his very resistance to being called a felon. Of all places and all things, the law is where fairness and justice must shine. It was not just. And isn't justice what the legal system is to uphold? Since such personalities are sensitive to things being just perfectly right, despair builds in, loneliness builds it, isolation builds in, because nobody hears or understands. What did the legal system prove in the end?
Another thing overlooked was his intelligence and insight. As a thinker, he could see into things and understand an issue further and quicker than an average person. Apparently, he was a great asset to society, who's talent could have been employed. Yet he succumbed to the futility of things, amplified by a cruel & cold system approach and his depressive states.
A person of such creativity and intelligence is also a free spirit. He doesn't act in order to harm, but rather there is a logic for a higher good. And Aaron seems to be such case. Must such personality characteristics be overlooked? In favor of coldly following a law? At one point one should get the point. And at one point, one should acknowledge his merit. At one point, one should back up and try to be reasonable.
I think he gave up to early. I think he should have kept fighting. The truth eventually surfaces. And there is always a way out, other than in death. THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY OUT. Yet, this is the thing that depression robs you off: one stops believing that there is any hope for your future.
Wherever you are, whatever you do, know there is a way out and if you suffer from depression:
Sleep well, go for walks and connect with REAL people. Talk to a friend (or someone) about it. Don't be embarrassed. You are not alone.p.s. This case and others have been wake-up calls for the IT entrepreneurial world, as more have shared their experiences with depression.
p.s. To this day there are attempts made to rectify the system error.
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