The topic - how copyright empirical decision making in a democratic-republic.
In a democratic-republic it is essential that the population is well informed and capable of debating technological and social issues. Often the best and most well informed source materials for a technological and social debate comes from academic research. Academic research is distributed in peered reviewed journals and publications. Most of the peer-reviewed studies encumber research papers with copyrights and charge for the redistribution of their content.
Political organizations, most dramatically on the conservative and libertarian end of the American political spectrum, have organized corporate and special interest funded think tanks to produce pseudo academic works to influence and manipulate political opinion. The "market of ideas" is being flooded with free information produced by politicized think tanks; while the most rigorously researched and empirically reasoned works are locked away in journals requiring paid access. As a result, United States copyright laws often have an unintended consequence of limiting the widespread discrimination of scholarly information in favor of biases information, thus dramatically altering the political discourse to favor of the corporate and special interests that fund the modern political think tanks.
Why it matters – Our future depends of the political decisions we make
The United States as the richest nation in the world, and the greatest consumer of global resources, has the heaviest footprint on the planet. We consume more oil, coal and gas per capita than any other nations. We produce the most pollution and greenhouse gases. If the developing nations of the world follow in our footsteps, humanity will deplete the planet earth to an existent that will endanger the lives of future generations.
The main point
Great wealth and industry has become dependent on our exploitation of natural resources. Some would rather change the data then to change the way they live. They believe that their liberty is defined by their consumptive way of life. Some believe that the struggle to right in excessive consumption of natural resources, the production of greenhouse gasses and the right to alter private property as tyranny. Because the environmental concerns have been the result of scholarly academic research, those who feel threatened have begun to suppress the institutions and methodology of academic research. Copyright holders of peer-reviewed works have become an unwitting ally of corporate and special interests.
Emotional tone
A streak of anti-intellectual behavior exists in the American body politic. Richard Hofstadter’s 1964 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Anti-intellectualism in American Life discussed many of the same forces that fuel the contemporary neo-conservative rejection of intellectuals, ecologists, and urbanists. Corporate interest have harnessed anti-intellectualism as a means to ward off changes in consumptive behavior by the populace that affect their profitability. Empiricism is being attacked by an ad hoc coalition of people who fear the social and economic changes that are logically derived from our observations. All citizens should be concerned people who put their own short-term interest above the life, liberty and happiness of our posterity are manipulating that body politic.
The video
The video will explore the subject with as much depth as one can do in a few minutes. We will take a look at one controversial subject and examine the popular presentation v. the academic presentations. We will look at the funding of think tanks and who is behind the curtain pulling the levers.
In a democratic-republic it is essential that the population is well informed and capable of debating technological and social issues. Often the best and most well informed source materials for a technological and social debate comes from academic research. Academic research is distributed in peered reviewed journals and publications. Most of the peer-reviewed studies encumber research papers with copyrights and charge for the redistribution of their content.
Political organizations, most dramatically on the conservative and libertarian end of the American political spectrum, have organized corporate and special interest funded think tanks to produce pseudo academic works to influence and manipulate political opinion. The "market of ideas" is being flooded with free information produced by politicized think tanks; while the most rigorously researched and empirically reasoned works are locked away in journals requiring paid access. As a result, United States copyright laws often have an unintended consequence of limiting the widespread discrimination of scholarly information in favor of biases information, thus dramatically altering the political discourse to favor of the corporate and special interests that fund the modern political think tanks.
Why it matters – Our future depends of the political decisions we make
The United States as the richest nation in the world, and the greatest consumer of global resources, has the heaviest footprint on the planet. We consume more oil, coal and gas per capita than any other nations. We produce the most pollution and greenhouse gases. If the developing nations of the world follow in our footsteps, humanity will deplete the planet earth to an existent that will endanger the lives of future generations.
The main point
Great wealth and industry has become dependent on our exploitation of natural resources. Some would rather change the data then to change the way they live. They believe that their liberty is defined by their consumptive way of life. Some believe that the struggle to right in excessive consumption of natural resources, the production of greenhouse gasses and the right to alter private property as tyranny. Because the environmental concerns have been the result of scholarly academic research, those who feel threatened have begun to suppress the institutions and methodology of academic research. Copyright holders of peer-reviewed works have become an unwitting ally of corporate and special interests.
Emotional tone
A streak of anti-intellectual behavior exists in the American body politic. Richard Hofstadter’s 1964 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Anti-intellectualism in American Life discussed many of the same forces that fuel the contemporary neo-conservative rejection of intellectuals, ecologists, and urbanists. Corporate interest have harnessed anti-intellectualism as a means to ward off changes in consumptive behavior by the populace that affect their profitability. Empiricism is being attacked by an ad hoc coalition of people who fear the social and economic changes that are logically derived from our observations. All citizens should be concerned people who put their own short-term interest above the life, liberty and happiness of our posterity are manipulating that body politic.
The video
The video will explore the subject with as much depth as one can do in a few minutes. We will take a look at one controversial subject and examine the popular presentation v. the academic presentations. We will look at the funding of think tanks and who is behind the curtain pulling the levers.
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