Where are you taking us Mr. Assange?
To a level of freedom any so-called “freedom loving” people seem to despise, that’s where.
At this point in our social development in the West, there seems to be a collective sense of amnesia about what freedom entails. Being Free means accepting risk, sometimes humiliating, sometimes deadly, resulting from openness and the minimization of sociocentric control and the decentralization of power amongst individual social actors.
And this is most particularly true of knowledge in an era dominated by Information/Technology. The cliché that knowledge equals power means that information restriction (by hiding it behind walls of “confidential” and “secret” labels) creates increasing power inequalities. The last decade has seen an explosion of barriers and restrictive labels placed on information under the guise of national security – is it any surprise that we have also seen our rights concurrently diminished? If you don’t agree, just try to fly on a plane in the US whilst retaining your dignity, let alone any slivers of your right to deny unlawful search and seizure (that would be the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, ladies and gentlemen).
The horror ingrained in both the popular and official reaction to Mr. Assange’s crusade for democratic discourse tells us all we need to know about the depth to which our expectations of liberty have been compromised. Accountability and Transparency are not merely words, they are fundamental perspectives necessary for the guarantee of personal liberty and the functionality of democracy. They do not come with groveling subservience to the status quo, they are fought for constantly in the face of forces that continually seek to deny them as a stepping stone to their own antidemocratic aggrandizement. This is a battle that often turns violent – just ask Martin Luther or Martin Luther King, Jr. - Lech Walesa or Thomas Jefferson.
So before you parrot the party line that Mr. Assange is a threat to the national security of the Free World, consider for a moment who is squawking it out – and what they have to lose by what’s being revealed. For if you can’t even do that, you may as well fit yourself for a slave collar now for as much use you are to your fellow liberty-loving residents of what little remains of the Free World.
For your viewing pleasure on the matter of Fundamental Perspective and Democracy: I leave you with this Holiday Treat.
Happy Holidays!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Down the Rabbit Hole
Labels:
Assange,
democracy,
freedom,
information,
Julian Assange,
open society,
openness,
transparency
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Well said.
ReplyDeleteanother succinct speech here: http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/2010/12/07/worth-repeating-6/
ReplyDelete"The state has its eye on every citizen, but every citizen, or at least every hacker – the citizens’ self-appointed avenger – can pry into the state’s every secret."
ReplyDeleteGod Bless Umberto Eco
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your writing. Really, so many logical fallacies, it would simply take too long to argue. I’m a democrat. I love the environment. I don't like many items on the Republican Agenda, and I still think Assange is a sick man who likes to hurt women, earn as much money as he can by any means possible, and a person who really doesn't care about anyone but himself. He found a niche, and he's exploiting it.
Julian Assange is a pitiful person. Comparing someone with sexual allegation charges to Dr. King robs the truly great freedom fighter Dr. King of his glory. You have successfully compared Dr. King to a frightened little man who hides behind computer hackers and keyboards, others who are more willing to do his dirty work.
I would hardly call publishing stolen files for public viewing discourse. Publishing information does not result in accountability. Maybe it scratches the surface of transparency, only if the ENTIRE STORY is published.
As far as riding the plane, I would love to see what would happen if everyone who has a problem with more rigorous searches sitting on a plane with a terrorist who was granted access to the plane because we wanted to protect his Fourth Amendment rights. What would happen? Say if all those folks sat on a plane and saw a man or women rise out from their seat, pull back their shirt to find a bomb strapped to that person’s chest. I feel bad for the guy who had a bag of urine broken because of an improper search. I feel bad for anyone who goes through an improper search. Either way, arguing over flight security seems like a different argument than Mr. Assange’s publishing of information.