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Last week, Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab (and a very sharp thinker on a variety of topics related to innovation) announced a really cool new award that the lab was putting together: a Rewarding Disobedience award, for $250,000, funded by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman:
This prize is a one-time experiment that, if successful, we will consider repeating in the future. It will go to a person or group engaged in what we believe is excellent disobedience for the benefit of society. The disobedience that we would like to call out is the kind that seeks to change society in a positive way, and is consistent with a set of key principles. The principles include non-violence, creativity, courage, and taking responsibility for one's actions. The disobedience can be in--but is not limited to--the fields of scientific research, civil rights, freedom of speech, human rights, and the freedom to innovate.
[...] I particularly like Michael Petricone's suggestion that the award should be named after Aaron Swartz. [...] One [thing] that becomes clear from the book [The Idealist] was the absolute disbelief by Swartz and his family of the fact that MIT refused to support Swartz after his arrest. The university basically turned its back on him completely. It's something that the university still ought to do something about, and naming this award after Swartz would be a step in the right direction.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday July 28 2016, @05:46PM
Gandhi was willing to face prison time for his beliefs. Overall, he spent about 7 years in jail. I think that speaks to the "and taking responsibility for one's actions." bit.
Not to downplay the tragedy and serious issue of prosecutorial overreach but civil disobedience requires that willingness.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday July 28 2016, @06:23PM
Your description is better -- I should have rephrased "justice system" as "malicious prosecution". And it does burn whenever I think or read about it.