Wikileaks and Julian Assange are difficult subjects.
I read articles by Russell Brand and Alex Baldwin - the gist - once in a while we need a whistle blower to reveal the truth about the environment in which we live.
No-one likes a whistle blower.
A whistle-blower disturbs the peace - they rock the boat - often everyone... already knows.. they just don't want to know - especially those that are comfortable enough - to want the status-quo to continue.
The initial reaction to a whistle blower - is to try and grab that dam whistle and shut it up.
The problem is that - with the internet - there is no real way to totally shut up the whistle blower. Documents are spread virally - recreated - turned into Meme's - into twitter posts - into Facebook groups.
Assange has been trapped in an embassy for over a year now... the leaker Manning is in prison and has essentially be dealt with by Obama's "Ministry of Love" - Snowden - essentially awaits a similarly grim fate.
In terms of results - we have had Arab Spring's - probably the destruction of Stratfor (I mean who's going to want to do business with them now!). We know that essentially all communications are monitored/keyworded/assessed/ etc.... that social media is not secure in the least.... (or indeed internet traffic full stop).
I don't think this has changed much - the move of world power to China and to Mega-Cities has been the dominant force - almost drowning out all other noise.
In a way - Wikileaks was a great early promoter of Bitcoin - so was Silk Road.
Perhaps whistle-blowers and black markets (the type where you can hire a contract killer) have a lot in common?
I wonder if Assange will ever face his charges - will he die in the Ecuadorian Embassy - will the UK say dammit we can't afford to keep a watch on him anymore - what would Dick Cheney think?
I read articles by Russell Brand and Alex Baldwin - the gist - once in a while we need a whistle blower to reveal the truth about the environment in which we live.
No-one likes a whistle blower.
A whistle-blower disturbs the peace - they rock the boat - often everyone... already knows.. they just don't want to know - especially those that are comfortable enough - to want the status-quo to continue.
The initial reaction to a whistle blower - is to try and grab that dam whistle and shut it up.
The problem is that - with the internet - there is no real way to totally shut up the whistle blower. Documents are spread virally - recreated - turned into Meme's - into twitter posts - into Facebook groups.
Assange has been trapped in an embassy for over a year now... the leaker Manning is in prison and has essentially be dealt with by Obama's "Ministry of Love" - Snowden - essentially awaits a similarly grim fate.
In terms of results - we have had Arab Spring's - probably the destruction of Stratfor (I mean who's going to want to do business with them now!). We know that essentially all communications are monitored/keyworded/assessed/ etc.... that social media is not secure in the least.... (or indeed internet traffic full stop).
I don't think this has changed much - the move of world power to China and to Mega-Cities has been the dominant force - almost drowning out all other noise.
In a way - Wikileaks was a great early promoter of Bitcoin - so was Silk Road.
Perhaps whistle-blowers and black markets (the type where you can hire a contract killer) have a lot in common?
I wonder if Assange will ever face his charges - will he die in the Ecuadorian Embassy - will the UK say dammit we can't afford to keep a watch on him anymore - what would Dick Cheney think?
No comments:
Post a Comment