Until recently I had zero interest in TedTalks, assuming they were the sort of nonsense that bourgeois bohemians were into, not the stuff for guys like me. Then I became a hyper-critical jerk with a blog and I can’t get enough of the TedTalks. It is like a candy store for malevolent meanies who enjoy making sport of our betters. At some point the beautiful people will find out that the rest of us think these things are hilariously stupid and they will stop doing it, but for now I have guys like Lawrence Lessig to entertain me.

[ted id=1960]

Lawrence Lessig is fairly typical of the grasping, self-important barnacle we see these days. His biography says he was “conservative” in his teenage years, joining the Teenage Republicans. He was a law clerk for some conservative judges and then joined the Cult while he was in Europe working on a philosophy degree. Ever since, his “change of heart” has been his pass into elite circles of the Cult of Modern Liberalism.

At the dawn of the Internet age, these faculty lounge philosophers were just about out of options. Sitting around smoking clove cigarettes and talking about Che was seen as ridiculously out of step with the times. Making money, living the good life and jumping on the speeding train of technology was where the cool kids were at, not bookstores and coffee shops. This ever-present caravan of crazies that poses as the avant guard needed to figure out how to get in on the act.

Guys like Lessig figured out how to attach themselves to the productive class by philosophizing about technology. Early nerds, like myself. were attracted to computers, the Internet and programming because you did not have to put up with all the bullshit that clown shoes like Lessig imposed on other creative fields. In fact, you could avoid these guys entirely as they were afraid of what you were doing. Debates on early bulletin board systems were wild and ferocious, but loads of fun because you did not have to worry about scolds like Lessig.

As to his talk, you see the same thing here as with all of them. Watching the video, it is all conversational, self-referential and emotive. It’s the Feelies from Brave New World. The guy on stage talks about an emotion and the crowd feels it. These talks are intended to be religious, not instructive. You see that when you read the text. It’s the sort of thing you write when on acid, thinking you have reached a higher consciousness.

He mentions this, his promotional vehicle he pretends is a political movement. Lessig has decided to attach himself to the Cult’s latest cause, getting money out of politics. The Cult hates the idea of unapproved people influencing politics. Citizen’s United has become a rallying cry and a weird sort of epithet for the Cult. Like health care, the Left is rallying to overturn rules and regulation they passed long ago. That Supreme Court ruling would be meaningless if the Left had not passed a mountain of other laws intended to curb money in politics.

Anyway, Lessig’s organization is just a way for Lessig to promote himself using other people’s money. Like “universal health care” campaign finance reform has become a subcult within the Cult of Modern Liberalism. That means there’s money to be had getting on this issue and that means barnacles like Lessig will attach themselves to it. It beats working, I guess.