on leadership, suicide and murder

http://blog.diasporafoundation.org/2011/11/16/ilya-zhitormirskiy-1989-2011.html

Ilya Zhitomirskiy was, publicly, a bright, energetic, idealistic star. He did not fail.  Rather, the world he was working to change failed him:

In the wake of the passing this weekend of Ilya Zhitomirskiy, one of the four founders of much-hyped open-source social network Diaspora, an unsettling conversation has begun within the tech community. Zhitomirskiy‘s death, rumored to be a suicide (sources close to CNN Money have confirmed but officially the cause is unknown), has ignited what many see as a much-needed and long-awaited dialogue in the industry: the mental health repercussions of the immense pressure and scrutiny—both internal and external—that young tech founders weather in their quest for the new American Dream.

quote from http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2011/11/16/ilya-zhitomirskiy-diaspora-suicide-speculation-depression-stress-anxiety/, emphasis mine

Does it matter whether Naomi Wolf is right?

I’m sure some folks are following the debate prompted by Naomi Wolf’s provocative piece, which her editors entitled, “The shocking truth about…” bla bla. Here’s the latest irrelevant response I’m aware of, at the Crooks and Liars blog site:

http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/naomi-wolf-defends-herself-ignoring-her-gra

“Wait, what do you mean when you say, ‘latest irrelevant response?’ Do you mean to say [most] of the response has been irrelevant? So what is relevant, then?” Why, thanks for asking! Here’s what I mean:

what Naomi is writing about — regardless of the extent to which it is true yet, and regardless of the semantic debates surrounding the questions of evidence — are things that have happened and are currently happening elsewhere (e.g., Arab Spring). American population control is much more entrenched and internalized, and i think nicely summarized in this comparison of Orwell v Huxley