Where did he go wrong?
What I find hard to understand is that Ulbricht does not seem like a misfit with some perceived reason to be angry at society. He was smart, academically. He has a B.S. in Physics and an M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering. Anyone with a graduate engineering degree should be well equipped to succeed in the normal way without turning to crime, which most people of similar intelligence would know is a bad bet, apart from the morality of it.
It seems to me that his mind was poisoned by libertarian ideals. Most people who get into this, or into any other extreme philosophical system, recognize that society places limits on where they can go with it, and accept those limits even if they don't like them. Ulbricht, instead, followed his libertarian ideals to their {il}logical and self-destructive conclusion. What a waste.
He should have read more of Locke, Mill, and Rousseau and less present day libertarian blather.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
