“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.” – Max Planck
Look, I’m the first to admit that we young people are dumb: we are sex-crazed, druggy rock ‘n roll freaks who love Family Guy and fart jokes, but at least we care about the future. For us, most of our lives lie in the future. For old people, most of their lives lie in the past. I think that might be why old people are so stuck in their ways.
If you haven’t heard, the people who run The Pirate Bay were found guilty and sentenced to a year in prison and fines of about $4 million. This is nothing more than the older generation trying to stop the future from happening. By the way, they weren’t even convicted of sharing files illegally, or even sharing information about illegal files, but simply linking to information about illegal files which “aids and abets” the downloading of illegal files. This is nothing more than censorship.
I really hate people who try to stop change. As I mentioned previously in my blog post on Star Trek and Intellectual Property, a world in which information is free is one step closer to utopia. It’s nothing to be afraid of. If history has taught us anything, it’s that you can’t stop innovation.
Now, I don’t know a single 20-something or younger person who believes filesharing to be wrong (or gay marriage, or marijuana). Hopefully, once our generation takes over things will change.
BEST COMMENT: d00d — “this post is great!
it manages to offend baby boomers who are offended when you call them old, now that they are old. they were once considered cutting edge, hip and trendy.
it offends people who have no idea how to dispassionately read a blog. “i disagree with you! i am going to sit here and shout at my cat while i type a witty/obscene response and then go to bed grinding my teeth in frustration b/c i am not able to disassociate myself from my reading.”
it offends ignorant people, because they are ignorant. “you want to legalize things that i think should be illegal? why don’t you just legalize murder and rape while you are at it, since i think those things should be illegal, too.”
it offends otherwise smart people, who attempt to hold the 300 year tradition of copyright up as though it has lasted eons, and that those who violate it should be physically imprisoned for committing information related meta-crimes in the virtual world.
and it offends me. because the reaction to this piece shows how many ignorant, self-centered and egotistical buffoons are still stubbornly part of the problem.”
EDIT: I’m fully aware that not all old people are conservative and not all young people are liberal. However, most stereotypes have some amount of truth to them. My comment about the old generation was actually specifically relating to the filesharing part: a generation which knows absolutely NOTHING about computers (and therefore NOTHING about filesharing) should not be making laws against things they know nothing about. Although the old generation probably knows more about drugs and marriage than us young people (who have only been doing drugs for a few years and aren’t yet married), don’t even try to pretend you guys understand computers or the Internet. And I repeat, anybody who is against filesharing really has to read my blog post on Star Trek and Intellectual Property. For the record, I’m 26 years old, I do have a job, and my company has just recently started open sourcing its projects.
Tags: bittorrent, filesharing, freedom, future, gay marriage, intellectual property, marijuana, The Pirate Bay
353 Comments on Anybody else waiting for the old generation to die so that we can legalize filesharing, marijuana, gay marriage, etc. and then get on with our lives?
- « Previous
- 1
- …
- 6
- 7
- 8
- « Previous
- 1
- …
- 6
- 7
- 8
PHillip wrote:
“Sam I am, I hope I grow and form all sorts of new thoughts as I age, but I certainly hope I don’t start giving up on freedom. I hope I don’t become a cynical old person.”
YOu dont’ believe in freedom Philip. YOu believe in taking. In fact, in your refuation of intellectual property you are suggesting that you should be able to appropriate the work of livelihood of others without paying them for thier work. In other words, you are advocating slavery.
It is cruel to expect sb’s death but I wonder… So many backward people are just a pain. It’s not necessarily about being old – it’s about being stupid.
The issue is not that we need the old generation to die off. Look at greats like Neil deGrasse Tyson and Richard Dawkins, completely in favor of sharing information and intellectual honesty. No the issue is us, humans. There will always be people that will take the reigns of power and then abuse it, and there will always be people that will let it happen, whether through ignorance or fear, or more likely a combination of both. Hopefully some day we can have a populace that will make well informed decisions but I fear that will not happen just because the baby boomers are gone. No we are the way we are and the power change from one generation to the next doesn’t bring drastic change the way you speak. Look through history, the only time we have had a drastic change in our collective belief is through war (American Civil War) or a radical movement of people (Civil Rights Movement). Yes the latter was, on the majority, younger people but their leaders were almost completely of the old guard. Our enthusiasm is our weapon, not our age, or lack thereof. “Be the change you wish to see in the world”