I was aware that I would receive some amount of criticism for my last post on the Swartz suicide given that I am criticized for pretty much anything that I write these days but I was surprised to hear some vicious criticism from some unexpected sources, namely Nandita Saika, a media and tech lawyer who maintains an interesting blog on Indian copyright law which you can access over here, in case you haven’t yet already heard of it.
On her twitter handle, Nandita writes “Nandita Saikia @nsaikia: “Just read Prashant Reddy over at @SpicyIP on ‘IP ideologies and the Swartz suicide’ and am disgusted beyond all measure”
While Twitter does encourage, if not institutionalize brevity, I would have expected somebody like Nandita, whom I do not remember meeting, to explain why she was condemning me on a public platform – without engaging in a constructive dialogue. For those of you who have followed the comments section on my last post, you will see that there have been several disagreements with my initial views by Swaraj and others and I have had an interesting discussion with them to get to the root of the matter and I think all parties, me included are more educated by the same.
But given that Nandita has chosen to condemn me on a public forum, without the minimum courtesies, I would like to present an unsolicited defence. I made three brief points in my last post:
(i) That nobody knew the reason for Swartz’s suicide – was it the prosecution or was it the depression that he had blogged about himself back in 2007?
(ii) I explained the background context of his prosecution and added some points to Swaraj’s earlier post on the issue and quoted some very reliable sources for the same;
(iii) I warned against using Swartz’s suicide as a tool in the IP debate, since we didn’t know what caused his suicide and it just feels wrong to use the untimely death of a young man as a political tool.
The only difference between my post and other posts like Swaraj’s post was that I didn’t display too much emotion. There is a reason for that – I have very strong views against suicides – the very first funeral that I went for in my life was for a friend who committed suicide – to see the despair in the parents and the friends who felt they didn’t do enough was heart-breaking, to say the least. I’m not one of those people who believe that we have total control over our life but I do believe that the decision to take our own lives is certainly within our control.
I didn’t want to moralize on Swartz’s suicide and I am still not going to moralize on his suicide because as much as I may be against it, I have no idea what was going on in his head before he took his life. Which is why I chose my last line in the previous post, very carefully: “We must mourn but we must not forget that there is no glory in death by suicide.” I think young people out there, especially in the Indian education system need to be told that there is always somebody to talk to about your problems and that suicide is not the solution to anything. The message should be one of encouraging young people to reach out for help in times of trouble instead of getting into a blame game. Unfortunately almost everything I have read about this suicide, contains only a message of vengeance targeted at those perceived to be responsible for this unfortunate suicide.
Hi Prashant,
I have been reading yours and Swaraj’s posts on this as well as the comment exchange and have been very tempted to chime in.
The big question and point of contention seems to be whether there is a discernible link between his suicide and the case. I know it is nigh impossible to get into his mind, but perhaps the closest we can come to doing that is to hear from his family.
So I’m going just going to leave this here. It’s the ‘official statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz’:
“Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death. The US Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims. Meanwhile, unlike JSTOR, MIT refused to stand up for Aaron and its own community’s most cherished principles.” [Source: http://www.rememberaaronsw.com/%5D
And a comment from his mother on a forum I frequent:
“Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. Aaron has been depressed about his case/upcoming trial, but we had no idea what he was going through was this painful.
Aaron was a terrific young man. He contributed a lot to the world in his short life and I regret the loss of all the things he had yet to accomplish. As you can imagine, we all miss him dearly. The grief is unfathomable.
Aaron’s mother” [Source: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047398%5D
Still not conclusive perhaps. But something that suggests there are good reasons not to isolate the discussion of his suicide from the case against him.
Doesn’t mean I disagree with everything you’ve said in your post, but thought this was important. Will hopefully be able to elaborate in a post of my own.
Cheers and kudos for speaking your mind,
Amlan
Prashant. With your last paragraph, you’ve pointed out something important to me. If I can try to expand on it: (apologies if I’ve understood you incorrectly, but even if so, now that your post has made me realise this, I think it needs to be said)
While most of the posts, like mine, are about “Aaron’s” suicide, you’ve been coming at this from a broader ‘suicide’ perspective – and the signal it sends to those who may have depressive thoughts.
We’ve (i.e., posts other than yours) have been focusing on our belief (and I still stand by it) that it would not have happened had the government not over zealously prosecuted him. That it was a vital link in that chain of causation.
And while not saying so directly, you’re focusing on the last link in that chain. His hanging. Without which, it also wouldn’t have happened. And now given that this has already happened, more importantly, others who may have suicidal thoughts, should not be led to play down the importance of this last link, regardless of what the other links have been.
And. without prioritising either of these links, I agree with you. It’s important that the importance of this last link not be played down; rather that it’s existence is made known.
Hi Amlan,
Thanks for your comment and the links to the family’s statement. They must be grieving and I don’t want to second guess them.
I would however like to give you a link to this CNN story which presents some disturbing quotes from his blog, dating back from 2007.
Prashant
Hi Swaraj,
We will probably not agree on this but I think the moment you blame a third party for a suicide, you are sending out the message that suicide is justified in some cases of high pressure – I just don’t believe that to be the case.
Prashant
Dear Prashant,
Unfortunately I have experienced the same kinds of reactions from people I don’t know well or at all, most recently in recent months in reaction to a nationally syndicated column that I wrote on agricultural biotechnology (where I received hate mail for months). So I empathize and sympathize with you and urge you not to shy away from continuing to speak your mind.
Yesterday like so many others, I found myself spending a lot of time learning more about Aaron Swartz, his life and his work. I am not a physician and am not seeking to diagnose Aaron Swartz. Based on his own writings and his highs and lows – and the incredible outpouring of his productivity during his more manic periods – it is quite possible that he was not being treated effectively for his illness which led both to some of the excesses of his activities (e.g., 4.5 million unauthorized downloads from MIT).
So his illness – which I see as no different from being near sighted or having high cholesterol – it can just a chemical imbalance controlled by medication – most likely affected him profoundly every day of his life. He struggled mightily against it, based on his own blogging. He was obviously incredibly talented and nothing takes away from that. (Some very creative individuals fear taking medications effective against clinical depression or manic (bi-polar) depression for fear that it will take away something that is fundamental to their personalities. The manic period can be itself entrancing and provides for amazing productivity.)
What really struck me is that we are seeing more and more in the US a tragic loss of life associated with untreated mental illness. This can result in suicide as well as to unbalanced individuals gaining access to firearms, as we saw both in the Tuscon and Newtown tragedies – the first being a very talented young PhD student who dropped out as he became increasingly detached from reality and the second likely an undiagnosed schizophrenic.
Judaism has a very difficult time with suicide, so I also understand your discomfort. Again understanding that I am not a physician or trying to make an ‘armchair diagnosis,’ I have read that is very common for an individual to move from an exuberant, highly manic and exceptionally creative and productive state to suddenly fall to the depths of depression in a way that is totally overwhelming and makes one feel that all hope is lost. In this situation, my understanding is that it may be the case that the person is viewed as having lost full consciousness of his actions and their implications. In other words, we would say that the individual was not in his ‘right mind’ and so did not intentionally take his own life.
Most of all, it is just very sad to lose someone so young, in any circumstances. Again I would like to express sympathy with the friends and family of Aaron Swartz and wish that they be comforted with the mourners of Zion.
In any case, please don’t let this dissuade you from continuing your work with Spicy IP!! (We all benefit from your efforts even if some are uncivil in how they respond.)
Best,
Susan
Ah, then,yes, we do disagree on this. I’m quite firmly of the belief that this decision, much like any other decision, is impacted, influenced and formed by a whole narrative of other events in one’s life.
🙂 And so we must agree to disagree but this discussion was useful – thank you for it.
Prashant
@Prashant, Agree to disagree it is. 🙂
Thanks for the discussion!
Two words Mr Reddy: GROW UP!
If this is how grown ups behave, no thank you Sir, I’d rather not grow up.
Prashant