Today in class we
watched the TED Talk, “Laws that Choke Creativity”. Throughout this speech, Larry Lessig speaks
on the idea that vocal cords have been taken over by infernal machines. The technology that we are surrounded with
today will eventually ruin any sense of artistic development that we have left. This same technology that is supposed to enrich
our community is simple choking the creativity out of it instead. It is only very soon that “We will not have a
vocal cord left. The vocal cords will be eliminated by a process of evolution.”
He also speaks on the
idea that we used to have a “read-write culture”. People would participate in the creation and
recreation of many works that enhanced society.
However, we have become
a “read-only culture” in which it can be asked: Who is left to write? Who is
left to think? In this type of culture, “Creativity
is consumed but the consumer is not a creator.”
The government has played a key role in all of this. The laws that have been passed restrict our
ability to become unique and independent in our thoughts and ideas. The copyright laws, especially, force us into
the position where there is no room left to create because every thought has already
been thought by someone else once before.
Because of this, the copyright laws inflicted upon us constrain our
creativity. We cannot think of our own
ideas because they are technically not our own.
If this is the case then there is absolutely nothing in this world that
is ours.
Lessig’s main argument
is that the internet is an opportunity to revive our “read-write culture”. He shows a series of videos where people have
taken previously created works and remixed them to produce something new and artistic. He wants not piracy but creativity, using technology
to recreate and enhance what we already have.
Lessig also argues
that the architecture of the copyright law has produced the conjecture that all
activities are illegal. Every single
uses of our culture is a copy and therefore nothing new can ever be created as
long as this law is enacted.
Lessig concludes his
speech with the phrase, “Legalize what it means to be young again.”
The culture that kids
today are producing revolves around the idea of taking “the songs of the day
and the old songs” and reviving them. It
is how we feel we can speak and be heard. Being creative is our way of understanding the
world around us.
He then states that “…the
law is nothing more than an a** to be ignored and to be fought at every
opportunity possible.” Let us rise
against the laws we deem unfair and let us stop being victims of this loss of
creativity, especially to such “infernal machines”.
Larry Lessig’s points
and arguments remind me of a short film I once watched entitled “2+2=5”.
In this film, a group of young boys were conditioned to act a certain
way in the classroom. If they disobeyed
the teacher or the elder students, there were severe consequences. One morning the teacher began his lecture by telling
the students that the product of two and two was five. They all had to repeat him over and over
until they had conditioned themselves to think of this as the norm. The one boy that challenged his teacher was
forced to the front of the classroom in which he still did not obey. He wanted to have a mind of his own. He did not want to be persuaded by authority
that easily.
The same goes for
us. The government has forced these laws
on us, mostly to keep us safe. But some
of these laws are not truly enacted for our common good. Copyright laws restrict our capability to be
that independent, out-of-the-box thinker.
It chokes our creativity.
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