I was first introduced to Lawrence Lessig through his book Free Culture, a damning look at the state of copyright in the United States. This book not only presents the flaws and the corruption of the copyright laws, but recommends a solution through Creative Commons, offering ways to license your works under a fairer licensence than the current copyright laws.
And then, I lost trace of what he was doing, because he moved on to the source of the corruption of the copyright laws: The corruption in American politics. Hence this book, "Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress - and a Plan to Stop It".
Now, it's easy to equate "corruption" in politics and name-calling, but here Lessig goes out of hits way (a bit too much in my opinion) to avoid so by saying that the corruption is one of influence of money systematically through the political system. We can clearly hear his frustrations in earlier chapters towards the political scientists that insist there is no corruption, and that even if there was it has not much effects on policy. But then, like the financial sector it is not unusual to see the academia being corrupted the same way (with the "revolving door" effect) as politicians.
While the book is systematic and careful of his damning of the political system and why it became so, it tends to be a bit too long to read. The solutions presented at the end are, admittedly by Lessig himself, unlikely to work and somehow still too "academic". Having a consitutional convention is a much more interesting idea, but could easily take a decade to work. But his plea to still try anything to remove money's too great influence on American politics by the end of the book is quite emotional and patriotic. As income inequality increases and cycles of economic "boom and bust" become shorter and more dramatic, this book is a great snapshot of some few not cynical enough to propose a way to restore democracy to the United States, before it's too late.
Published on May 29, 2012 at 21:01 EDT
Older post: Che (2007 movie)
Newer post: Kubrick's Napoleon