When considering my career, I've often thought of who I'd like to be like, which public figure I'd like to emulate. The person I come up with most often is Larry Lessig. He's a public intellectual and also an activist. He's no Che Guevara (and neither am I), but he's used his intellectual prowess and energy to change the world in the domain of intellectual property rights. Creative Commons, his "some rights reserved" program, has introduced alternatives to copyright in dozens of nations around the world (including Bligoo). He is a well-respected author. He travels around giving talks. He seems like a nice guy.

The only problem with my emulating Larry Lessig is that doesn't work in politics. Well, imagine my delight when I decided to read his blog (for the first time) yesterday and found this recent post. Turns out he is leaving the intellectual property work he's been doing up until now and, for the next ten years, he'll be moving into political questions, particularly the "corruption" (his quotes, not mine) of the political process. "Our government can't understand basic facts when strong interests have an interest in its misunderstanding" he writes. "In the US, listening to money is the only way to secure reelection. And so an economy of influence bends public policy away from sense, always to dollars." Basically, he's saying the system of how political decisions are made in America is messed up and he'd like to commit himself to solving that problem for the next ten years. Sweet!

This new direction is awesome for several reasons. Firstly and most selfishly, this is what I'm concerned with too. I'm pretty sure that this "corruption" is a result of imperfect democracy (moneyed interests have more power over decision-makers than the silent majority of voters), so now he's a closer professional model for me. Second, It is really wonderful that such a powerful intellect as Lessig will be committing his great mind the problems of imperfect political systems. He is bound to make incredible contributions to the field. Third, this comes as a bit of a vindication for me. If a brilliant man like Larry Lessig has come around to the fundamental corruption of the political system, then there must be something to it. Finally, and most hypothetically, the fact that we are in the same rather small field means our paths might cross and we might actually have something to talk about, which would be very cool.

photo credit:O'Reilly Net