Given the power the kind of people who actively support WikiLeaks not only possess but are evidently prepared to use to interfere with the internet, and therefore with all of our lives, it is surely vital that we become aware of what exactly are the issues here, so that a proper engagement can take place.
Here is an extract from another journalist, this time in Canada, who 'gets it' about WikiLeaks:
[...] WikiLeaks is a worldwide network of individuals who share a common ethic and a common cause -- a conspiracy, if you will. As Northwestern University philosophy professor Peter Ludlow argues, WikiLeaks "is the product of decades of collaborative work by people engaged in applying computer hacking to political causes."
This means that "were Assange to be eliminated today, WikiLeaks would doubtless continue." Indeed, as Assange's own discussion highlights, a conspiracy will survive even if a high value target like Assange is eliminated. And further, "even if WikiLeaks were somehow to be eliminated, new sites would emerge to replace it."
This suggests that, just as the attention paid to individual leaks is misplaced, so too is the attention paid to Assange.
WikiLeaks isn't about one man any more than it's about one leak. And trying to neutralize WikiLeaks by neutralizing one man, or one leak, is like trying to cripple a centipede by breaking one of its legs. Read more
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A Dutch journalist who 'got it' interestingly on 8 Dec. takes an 18 April Berkeley, CA interview quotation seriously, where J.A. calls leaking an essentially anarchistic act, and sees him and his in line with the 19th-c. anarchistic motto, "Ni Dieu, ni maître", noting their basal contempt for anyone who disagrees with them.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, he sees their attitude, in which they seem, in practice, self-appointed (ultimate) arbiters of good and evil, as according with the 'godless hubris' of the tyrant who will tolerate nothing and no-one with any authority over him, in Calvin's analysis in the Institutes.
The Australian J.A. apologia article you link is hard to take seriously in a day when any child with enough software and experience can manipulate or forge impressive 'evidence'. Everyone his own Winston Smith and Big Brother in one, if he be so minded and have the skills!
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