Criticism of the General Idea

From Lessig Wiki

Criticism of the General Idea

Failure to Distinguish Between "Corruption" and "Influence"

Lessig explains that he's not really interested in the exciting subject of corruption as much as in the more pedestrian notion of influence, and has apparently chosen to use the former word because it's more electric than the latter. So how does one begin to critique a work that flies a false flag, by what it says it is or by what it really is?

In our capitalist economy, money flows all over the place, and politics is no exception. Many people find it possible to make excellent livings critiquing capitalism, such as Ralph Nader, a multi-millionaire who's never held a job outside of his own non-profit corporation. Does this mean Nader is corrupt? Are we to assume that Nader is influenced by Cisco because he holds their stock?

Jesse Unruh, a former speaker of the California House and a lion of politics, famously said of lobbyists: "if you can't take their money, drink their whiskey, [sleep with] their women and still look the bastards in the eye and vote against them, you don't belong [in the legislature]."

Instead of complaining about the money in politics, we should be cultivating Unruh-like spines in our elected officials. All the study of influence will do is create a massive confusion of correlation and causation.

Elected officials are supposed to be influenced by their constituents and others affected by their legislation. To insist that they not be is to deny one of the fundamental assumptions on which representative government is founded.