BS: Lawrence Lessig-fixing the Republic

Subject: BS: Lawrence Lessig-fixing the Republic
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Feb 12 - 01:47 PM

From my email this morning. Important stuff, imo. His excerpt is well worth reading:

The Outsider's Guide to Fixing the Republic
by Lawrence Lessig

Something is clearly rotten in our Republic. Americans are disillusioned with the political system and angry as hell. They feel like outsiders in their own nation, powerless over their own lives, blocked from having a real voice in how they are governed. But all of this can change. Lawrence Lessig, the renowned Harvard Law School professor and political activist presents a user-friendly, bipartisan manifesto for revolution just when we need it the most. His audaciously simple solution? Kill political corruption at its root: money.

You may read an excerpt HERE.

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This is from Lessig:

Hello #Rootstrikers (aka, "Batmen"),

I'm writing to let you know about a new book, inspired in part by many of you, and to invite you to participate in a different kind of #Rootstrikers project tied to that book.

On Tuesday, Byliner Originals published One Way Forward: The Outsider's Guide to Fixing the Republic — a short (~50 pages) and inexpensive (~$2) book that I've written to map a strategy for moving this revolution along. This book(chen) complements the (much longer) Republic, Lost, published last fall, and builds upon the extraordinary (what I call) "outsider movements" that we've seen on both the Left and the Right.

Unlike regular books, however, and in a sense like Wikipedia, I am hopeful this work will eventually come alive. This is where we need your help. I've set up a blog that invites reactions to each chapter. After 6 months, I will revise the book based on those reactions, and release both the original and the revised work as free, CC-licensed downloads. The revised book will then continue to live on a wiki, licensed as Wikipedia is, to permit free (but copyleft) distribution. If this works, the text could become a framework for one (among possibly many) ways for us to move this fight forward.

You are the key to bringing this community to life. #Rootstrikers play a critical role in the campaign to change this system — as teachers, helping others to see the corrupting influence of money in politics (the "root"), and as citizens, working to strike at that root (the "strikers"). We don't often ask for your money (though sometimes we must). But we do ask for your help. This campaign must be person-to-person. And your feedback and ideas would do a great deal to make this one source better.

So if you get a chance to read the book, we'd be grateful for your feedback. And if you could join a community to help bring this book alive, that would be even better.
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Subject: RE: BS: Lawrence Lessig-fixing the Republic
From: DebC
Date: 16 Feb 12 - 04:40 PM

Lawrence Lessig is another hero of mine.

Deb

Subject: RE: BS: Lawrence Lessig-fixing the Republic
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Feb 12 - 07:08 PM

Me, too, Deb!

Subject: RE: BS: Lawrence Lessig-fixing the Republic
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Feb 12 - 12:20 AM

I've been posting his stuff on facebook and twitter for ages. It's nice to see him here at Mudcat as well!

SRS