Neanderthal Philosophy

by on June 24, 2008 · 9 comments

Larry Lessig is so respectful to his ideological opponents:

The press conference brought together some unlikely allies. “This is the first time in our history that we have tried to build fundamental infrastructure on the basis of a Neanderthal philosophy,” announced Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig, “which is that we don’t need government to do it.” Seated next to Lessig was David All, founder of the Republican fundraising site Slatecard—and normally a proponent of that “Neanderthal” philosophy. All later argued for wider broadband access as a means of fostering the next generation of tech entrepreneurs.

Tell us what you really think, Prof. Lessig.

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About Tim Lee

Timothy B. Lee (Contributor, 2004-2009) is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. He is currently a PhD student and a member of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University. He contributes regularly to a variety of online publications, including Ars Technica, Techdirt, Cato @ Liberty, and The Angry Blog. He has been a Mac bigot since 1984, a Unix, vi, and Perl bigot since 1998, and a sworn enemy of HTML-formatted email for as long as certain companies have thought that was a good idea. You can reach him by email at leex1008@umn.edu.

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  • http://sethf.com/ Seth Finkelstein

    “Neanderthal philosophy” isn’t the best phrasing, since it’s not really ancient, and brutish isn’t the main aspect. I suggest “right-wing fantasy ideology” as more apropos.

  • http://sethf.com/ Seth Finkelstein

    “Neanderthal philosophy” isn’t the best phrasing, since it’s not really ancient, and brutish isn’t the main aspect. I suggest “right-wing fantasy ideology” as more apropos.

  • Mike Wendy

    The ad hominem gets a little tiring. It masks harder arguments to deal with – stuff that is gray, not black- and-white. It seems to me that the underlying group/event which spurred this posting has thrived on creating the black-and-white to stir up the troops. Gray arguments don’t fit that bill; they confuse the rank-and-file.

    Sure, innovation at the edges is good. But the answer toward broadband deployment remains much more nuanced – and interdependent – than let on to by Larry’s not-so bon mots.

  • Mike Wendy

    The ad hominem gets a little tiring. It masks harder arguments to deal with – stuff that is gray, not black- and-white. It seems to me that the underlying group/event which spurred this posting has thrived on creating the black-and-white to stir up the troops. Gray arguments don’t fit that bill; they confuse the rank-and-file.

    Sure, innovation at the edges is good. But the answer toward broadband deployment remains much more nuanced – and interdependent – than let on to by Larry’s not-so bon mots.

  • http://bennett.com/blog Richard Bennett

    In contrast, the left-wing fantasy ideology that we can make the rich give us all the free stuff we can possibly consume is more modern.

    Lessig is Google’s shill. They funded his law center to the tune of $11M so can carry on about “corruption” while advocating for their corporate interests. He’s America’s greatest living charlatan.

  • http://bennett.com/blog Richard Bennett

    In contrast, the left-wing fantasy ideology that we can make the rich give us all the free stuff we can possibly consume is more modern.

    Lessig is Google’s shill. They funded his law center to the tune of $11M so can carry on about “corruption” while advocating for their corporate interests. He’s America’s greatest living charlatan.

  • andybolton

    “Neanderthal” philosophy – well… Rumours have it, the methods between the both of them are more 21st century.
    :)

  • Abraham Maki

    this is an awsome blog

  • http://hobbywedkarstwo.blogspot.com/ Tom

    Thanks for the information.:) Applause for the author :D

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