dhenry:
However, if we don't keep correcting the idiocy every time we see or hear it, we're part of the problem.
Swartz didn't like the laws and decided that he would be the final arbiter of what's right and wrong and executed the people's will, whether they liked it or not.
Sounds like he has achieved Stage 6 of Kohlberg's Six Stages of Moral Development.
"Moral reasoning is based on abstract reasoning using universal ethical principles. Laws are valid only insofar as they are grounded in justice, and a commitment to justice carries with it an obligation to disobey unjust laws. Legal rights are unnecessary, as social contracts are not essential for deontic moral action. Decisions are not reached hypothetically in a conditional way but rather categorically in an absolute way, as in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. This involves an individual imagining what they would do in another’s shoes, if they believed what that other person imagines to be true. The resulting consensus is the action taken. In this way action is never a means but always an end in itself; the individual acts because it is right, and not because it is instrumental, expected, legal, or previously agreed upon. Although Kohlberg insisted that stage six exists, he found it difficult to identify individuals who consistently operated at that level."
People keep asking why we are seeing a decline in brilliant people in America. Well, here they are. Diagnosed with mental conditions and driven to suicide, because brilliant people don't fit social norms.