> “It is no accident that Silicon Valley is in America, and not France, or Germany, or England, or Japan,” Graham wrote. “In those countries, people color inside the lines.”<p>Whaaaat, you have got to be kidding me.<p>Colouring inside the lines? Let's see, the Demoscene is almost exclusively a European phenomenon. There's the CCC. Fravia did not exactly colour inside the lines. There's the Pirate Bay. Wikileaks. Just a colourful few from the top of my head, there's more if you dig further.<p>If you really have to look for a difference with Silicon Valley, I'd say it's about making money, startups, entrepreneurship, chasing <i>that</i> "American Dream", contrast with the above examples which are all people that did it for idealism, art or just for the heck of it, instead of for profit. In that context, Aaron Swartz falls squarely in the latter category.<p>Before you throw a fit about my stereotyping, stop. The distinction I sketched in the previous paragraph is just as stupid as the one Graham tried to make. I think it's stupid to draw a distinction between US and EU like this[0], after all, that's what this global communication information age is about. There's "startup-hackers" in the EU just as much as there are "tinkerer-hackers" in the US.<p>Having said that, the first thing I thought when reading that headline was "wow, if a big media outlet like the Washington Post names you 'American Hero', you really did something very right", and I felt happy. Which turned to disappointment when I found that the "American" part of that title was wrought with such bitter nationalism.<p>[0] I'm leaving Japan out of this because I really hardly know anything about that country and don't want to be caught with my foot in my mouth, somebody more knowledgeable than me can make that part of the argument.