Chris Hedges’ article on his recent meeting with Assange is a mix of interview and essay, Assange’s statements and Hedges’ thoughts and expansion thereon are well worth reading – and thinking about.
(Excerpts of the audio here).
Those around the globe with the computer skills to search out the secrets of empire are now those whom empire fears most.
If we lose this battle, if these rebels are defeated, it means the dark night of corporate totalitarianism.
If we win, if the corporate state is unmasked, it can be destroyed.
I think he is unduly optimistic to think that ‘unmasking’ malfeasance will end it. Half of the pubic won’t even be exposed to the truth because they do not read or follow anything but MSM. If accidentally exposed to the facts, most won’t believe, because it conflicts with the way they want to see themselves and their country. The other half is either part of the PTB or too concerned with their own little corner of the world.
The global assault [] is part of the terrifying metamorphosis of the “war on terror” into a wider war on civil liberties. It has become a hunt not for actual terrorists but a hunt for all those with the ability to expose the mounting crimes of the power elite.
Not resistance, not the intent to resist, not the thought of resisting, but the mere capability to resist is a threat and will be treated as such.
Assange said he sees WikiLeaks’ primary role as giving a voice to the victims of U.S. wars and proxy wars by using leaked documents to tell their stories. The release of the Afghan and Iraq War Logs, he said, disclosed the extent of civilian death and suffering, and the plethora of lies told by the Pentagon and the state to conceal the human toll. The logs, Assange said, also unmasked the bankruptcy of the traditional press and its obsequious service as war propagandists.
Unfortunately, 95% of Americans really don’t give a rat’s ass what happens to anyone except them. Period.
The internet, our greatest tool of emancipation [] has been transformed into the most dangerous facilitator of
totalitarianism we have ever seen.
The world has been turned upside down. The pestilence of corporate totalitarianism is spreading rapidly over the earth.
The criminals have seized power. It is not, in the end, simply Assange or Manning they want. It is all who dare to defy the official narrative,
to expose the big lie of the global corporate state. The persecution of Assange and Manning is the harbinger of what is to come,
the rise of a bitter world where criminals in Brooks Brothers suits and gangsters in beribboned military uniforms—propped up by a
vast internal and external security apparatus, a compliant press and a morally bankrupt political elite—monitor and crush those who dissent.
Writers, artists, actors, journalists, scientists, intellectuals and workers will be forced to obey or thrown into bondage.
I fear for Julian Assange. I fear for Bradley Manning. I fear for us all.
Calling the ‘corporate totalitarianism’ a pestilence is more than a metaphor, it’s an apt description. Like all pestilence, it will eventually run its course, killing millions – perhaps billions – before the survivors develop an immunity. What will finally bring it down is that the world the CorporatePoliticalMiliary clique is trying to build & and control is ultimately unsustainable. It won’t be because The People people suddenly discover The Truth and rally to prevent it but because it is based on infinite availability & use of finite resources. It is a disease which kills its host and is thus self-limiting.
The tragedy is the suffering and death it will cause in its passage through humanity.
St. Julian? Oh, gods forbid!
But to deny the service he’s done is just nonsensical.
Just look at the world we inhabit;
“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984
“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”
― George Orwell, 1984
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”
― George Orwell, 1984
And here we are…
It’s called the national security state and it’s one serious control vehicle. You can’t make decisions without information. When the informaation is sanitized and manufactured as though it were accurate, you start with bad assumptions and that leads to bad decisions. However, the public is pretty damn good at sniffing out a rotten deal. Majorities of Republicans and Democrats opposed the Iraq invasion in the December before the invasion. They wanted to see final results from the inspections.
I have come to believe that polls are the method politicians use to refine their lies. BUsh came out with WMD and suckered just enough on the margins to justify his war. Obama got a 10% approval on invading Syria or otherwise getting involved. He’s backing off but looking for an excuse. Unfortunately for him, it’s 44% to 27% opposed to any military involvement even with the use of chemical weapons.
I’m about 1/2 way convinced that Assange is a ringer. I saw him on Colbert. When asked ‘What do your leak sources get out of the publications?’ Assange said, that Wikileaks published things they believed in and the sources got publicity for their cause. Then I recalled the East Anglia hack Wikileaks did, the one that supposedly exposed climate change as a ruse. Well, sorry, but that’s totally unacceptable (the data was distorted and said no such thing but Wikileaks did it).
I was at the press conference for the Iraq video and wrote about it. Then I put Colbert, Assange, and East Aglia together and took a differenet view of the group – The Greater Horror. Chris Floyd took the same view and I thought, great, some cover. Then he changed his mind!!! Anyway, I’m torn but I don’t rely on Assange for much of anything.
I suspect that just as some kids start hacking as a way to flip off the establishment, some of those who feed wikileaks are doing it simply because they can. “Why does a dog…….?” They figure if it’s not public, there must be something bad going on. I instinctively distrust their putative altruistic motives. I also think Assange has serious ego issues which sometimes has him publishing stuff without looking closely enough at the data – again, “Why does a dog….?”
Wikileaks as an organization had and may still have serious internal friction and one can question the mental stability of Assange and why Berg left. For that matter, one can question the mental state of hackers & ubertechies. All too many people get into computers because they are social misfits, MarkZ being a prime example.
That being said, if we avoid ad hominem positions and just look at the data, even giving the Wikileak targets the benefit of any doubt, there is a hell of a lot of political and economic malfeasance going on outside the public eye, and in most cases, the secrecy is not to protect national security but to cover some activity that is illegal under American and/or international law. There is a difference between “I don’t want my enemy to find out about this” and “I don’t want my friends to find out about this”.
When you read/hear information, you always need to consider the source. That caveat should include Wikileaks. Unfortunately, Americans never seem to learn balance – with us it’s always black or white, saint or devil. Thus they got a free pass with a lot of people just because they exposed leaders we never trusted in the first place – they confirmed our suspicions.
Assange may well be a flaky twit in many ways, but the data speaks for itself.
I too think Wikileaks has done the world a service, despite the imperfections of it’s leader.
I didn’t read the East Anglia stuff, but I do say there are those willing to use climate change as a tool for profit. Consider the notion of selling (or buying) carbon credits and the so-called bankers handling such transactions. Does anyone honestly believe such crap will prevent climate change?
The causes Wikileaks promotes do not lead to wealth, they lead to persecution, for me a sign that they are on target.
Re carbon trading:
Joe Bageant – Nine BIllion Little Feet, Feb 8, 2008