People insulting Aaron Greenspan just don't understand him.
If you want to understand him, just imagine a very sensitive precocious child raised on a rigid deontological morality by highly rigid and argumentative parents. This values system is characterized by a rigid logic that mainly focuses on things that are disallowed. For instance, lying is disallowed, betrayal is disallowed, and perfect obedience to official rules and legitimate authority is seen as the highest life virtue. The legitimacy of the authority though is dependent on the attempt of the authority to enact fair rules.
Aaron, as a precocious and sensitive boy who was mature for his age and learned logical reasoning early, absorbed his moral lessons very well and set them up as a set of rigid unbendae rules in his psyche.
When this kind of compex, highly integrated, high integrity, rigid value system encounters reality it finds outrage absolutely everywhere because the truth is that most authorities are quite incompetent and very far from fair. The hackers who are willing to break the rules have an unfair advantage over Aaron, who is literally incapable of breaking the rules due to his early programming. To rectify this intolerable unfairness he must demonstrate how the authorities are not properly punishing the rule breakers and t is hoped that this will ameliorate the unfairness.
I have a lot of sympathy for Aaron. He is really a victim of his short sighted parents who deeply indoctrinated him with this ideology that puts him at a major disadvantage in the modern day. It's not a simple thing to change or break this ideology even if he wanted to, because there are tremendous anxiety barriers stopping him from breaking any rules. He would feel extremely guilty and worried if he used patently selfish intentions and engaged in borderline unethical behaviour like spamming porn for money.
Aaron did everything right. He never lied, never stole, never even used deception or committed a lie of omission. He always shared with others and always engaged brotherly love. He had plenty of chances to betray people's trust for profit and did not take them. He worked hard and long with perfect integrity - moral perfection. And what did he get for it? Nothing. Zuck got 4 billion and his name in the history books for lying, cheating, breaking the rules. That could have been aaron, but Aaron was too morally perfect. It's just not fair!! And it's all the fault of Authority for failing to punish those who broke the rules.
Aaron - society is not to blame for rewarding cheaters. Your parents are to blame for giving you a crippling moral compass that is out of touch with reality.
So a desire to follow the law is some kind of moral failing all of a sudden? Sorry but that is bullshit.
There is nothing wrong with following the law and trying to get others to follow the law and reporting lawbreaking. I am sure you will appreciate this next time you get mugged.
(By the way I have to say I am not sure I agree with Mr. Greenspan's determination that Airbnb and Facebook are unlicensed money transmitters. But there is no reason to attack anyone because they simply want to follow the law.)
It's not a counter argument. I strongly believe Aaron is telling the truth about the porn spamming. However I also believe it does not make the perpetrator a bad cofounder.
Writing a fact based analysis of the personality of a public figure is not bullying. I have a lot of respect for Aaron both personally and professionally. In fact I used the words "moral perfection" to describe him.
If you want to understand him, just imagine a very sensitive precocious child raised on a rigid deontological morality by highly rigid and argumentative parents. This values system is characterized by a rigid logic that mainly focuses on things that are disallowed. For instance, lying is disallowed, betrayal is disallowed, and perfect obedience to official rules and legitimate authority is seen as the highest life virtue. The legitimacy of the authority though is dependent on the attempt of the authority to enact fair rules.
Aaron, as a precocious and sensitive boy who was mature for his age and learned logical reasoning early, absorbed his moral lessons very well and set them up as a set of rigid unbendae rules in his psyche.
When this kind of compex, highly integrated, high integrity, rigid value system encounters reality it finds outrage absolutely everywhere because the truth is that most authorities are quite incompetent and very far from fair. The hackers who are willing to break the rules have an unfair advantage over Aaron, who is literally incapable of breaking the rules due to his early programming. To rectify this intolerable unfairness he must demonstrate how the authorities are not properly punishing the rule breakers and t is hoped that this will ameliorate the unfairness.
I have a lot of sympathy for Aaron. He is really a victim of his short sighted parents who deeply indoctrinated him with this ideology that puts him at a major disadvantage in the modern day. It's not a simple thing to change or break this ideology even if he wanted to, because there are tremendous anxiety barriers stopping him from breaking any rules. He would feel extremely guilty and worried if he used patently selfish intentions and engaged in borderline unethical behaviour like spamming porn for money.
Aaron did everything right. He never lied, never stole, never even used deception or committed a lie of omission. He always shared with others and always engaged brotherly love. He had plenty of chances to betray people's trust for profit and did not take them. He worked hard and long with perfect integrity - moral perfection. And what did he get for it? Nothing. Zuck got 4 billion and his name in the history books for lying, cheating, breaking the rules. That could have been aaron, but Aaron was too morally perfect. It's just not fair!! And it's all the fault of Authority for failing to punish those who broke the rules.
Aaron - society is not to blame for rewarding cheaters. Your parents are to blame for giving you a crippling moral compass that is out of touch with reality.