I have been arguing for years that intellectual property rights – patents, copyrights – should be abolished. That is not commonplace. Taking it a step further, by making uncontrollable transnational corporations considerably smaller, seems like a hopeless task. According to my analysis we don’t need the current pharmaceutical industries to get new drugs.
Even more unruly? Yes. The war on drugs cannot be won. So: legalize all drugs. If we are talking about crime: corporate crime. We should not rest before people who commit crimes from companies are brought to justice, if not national then global.
I live along one of the oldest canals in Amsterdam. Beautiful, but what a noise of people shouting and screaming in the street and in boats!
I coined the term stray noise (zwerflawaai) for that kind of sound.
Because of my efforts, together with local residents, to muffle this noise somewhat, I have become interested in the more general question: who is allowed to make excessive noise in public space, and who actually makes it, and who is bothered by or becomes sick of it? I have written quite a bit about that too limitedly asked question.
Amsterdam is the city where I was born, I am fond of, and will stay to live for the rest of my life. It is therefore not surprising that I involve myself with city matters. Obviously with almost impossible ideas, such as the proposal to build the tower of the Nieuwe Kerk near Dam Square, which was just not built in the mid-seventeenth century. For me, going from Amsterdam to the world is not a very big step, which led me to various articles.
Much of what I have proposed over the years has not been realized. That doesn’t make the ideas any less valuable, at least for me. Someone has to say what is wrong with the world and what can be done about it.
You are unruly or you are not. I am. Definitely so.