<story><title>Aaron Swartz’s Theory on How to Save the World</title><url>https://backchannel.com/aaron-swartzs-theory-on-how-to-save-the-world-b3401bf79d99#.8tdx6ebw8</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pieter1976</author><text>I have never understood the raising up of Aaron Swartz to demi-god status by this community. It is tragic that he took his own life and I fully expect to be downvoted here for expressing this opinion as it is a thing you can&amp;#x27;t say here (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.paulgraham.com&amp;#x2F;say.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.paulgraham.com&amp;#x2F;say.html&lt;/a&gt;).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>scrollaway</author><text>He was young, showed great promise, was clearly ahead of his age, everybody who knew him found him to be a genuinely nice and caring person...&lt;p&gt;Is it really &lt;i&gt;that&lt;/i&gt; surprising that people are genuinely upset he took his own life after being harassed by the US government? This is a community that tends to dislike extreme prosecution, copyright laws and generally agrees with Aaron&amp;#x27;s ideology.&lt;p&gt;And on another note: Can HN not care about a guy without people saying we&amp;#x27;re &amp;quot;raising him to demi-god status&amp;quot;? With how often that accusation is thrown around, you&amp;#x27;d think we have enough to sell our demi-god surplus to cults in need of more.&lt;p&gt;PS: The &amp;quot;I&amp;#x27;ll be downvoted for my contrarian idea but ...&amp;quot; stuff is for reddit, not here, tbh.</text></comment>
<story><title>Aaron Swartz’s Theory on How to Save the World</title><url>https://backchannel.com/aaron-swartzs-theory-on-how-to-save-the-world-b3401bf79d99#.8tdx6ebw8</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pieter1976</author><text>I have never understood the raising up of Aaron Swartz to demi-god status by this community. It is tragic that he took his own life and I fully expect to be downvoted here for expressing this opinion as it is a thing you can&amp;#x27;t say here (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.paulgraham.com&amp;#x2F;say.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.paulgraham.com&amp;#x2F;say.html&lt;/a&gt;).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lazzlazzlazz</author><text>I agree. His story is tragic, but why was he considered so profoundly enlightened? I have read almost everything published about him and failed to be grasped in the same way.</text></comment>