Okay, so my current rant is about the new Left-Wing Idol, Julian Assange, head of the Wikileaks website. While many details have flown around about Assange's personal life, about whether or not he did or did not rape a woman in Sweeden seems to be a farcicle trial in order to extradite him to America, where he will certainly face trial for espionage.
While the case is a clear show trial for everyone to see. I'm more interested in grilling Assange, not for what he is being accused of, but for what he has actually released. While flicking through some of the released cables, that Assange has unleashed on the world, I wonder several things.
1. What is the point of releasing the cables?
2. How many of these are taken out of context?
3. How many of these cables were of genuine public concern?
4. What is the real damage done?
I think that 1 and 3 have similar answers from what I believe. Having seen interviews with Assange and seeing why he did it, it seems he is more an anarchist and rather then participate in a forum were he could take hits as well, he has cleverly positioned himself behind his website, Wikileaks, created enough of a storm, once again the whole wikileaks debacle, and has attempted to destabilize regimes for no forseeable reason.
Now it is my belief that the countries have gone around chasing Assange up the wrong way. They are trying to come up with a very see through trumped up charge. What they should be doing is inviting him into public forums, engage the man and hold him responsible for the actions that have caused the farce in the first place. It is of my belief that the actions taken by Sweden, has not shut up Assange, but merely made him a martyr. The charges truly show how much the governmental institutions are afraid of admitting guilt. Inviting him into the public forum and opening Wikileaks up for everyone to see, potentially scares the government officials about what is written and said and what mistakes they have made behind closed doors.
While this can be a good thing that politicians are more afraid of what they do and say behind closed doors, I'm not sure it's all for the public benefit. It is in this space that I'd like to quote a man who I respect greatly but disagree on with a lot, Winston Churchill, The British PM during the Second World War who said "The greatest arguement against democracy is five minutes with the average voter". While Churchill came from a culture that believed that a mans worth was measured by the amount of money he had, I believe the fact that there still remains an overwhelming majority of people in the world who don't understand the importance of climate change, are still overwhelmingly homophobic and to some extent racist and sexist, are the same people that are voting in our leaders and choosing who governs us. It is these people I believe the Wikileaks saga is dangerous in, and it is these people who will justify themselves and their votes through the wikileaks debacle, and I believe that this is the real damage that has been done by Wikileaks and Julian Assange.
ARTICLE UPDATE: In recent developments to the Wikileaks saga, as the story continues to unfold, with the convictions of Chelsea Manning in America for leaking classified documents, Assange running for the Senate in Victoria, the Snowden/NSA saga has continued to play out in major stories across the world. While at the same time, the documents released on Wikileaks have ceased creating stories, and the stories now seem to revolve around the cult of personality surrounding Assange. The more attention fawned on Assange the more he reveals himself to be egomaniacal and self centred individual who doesn't care whether or not his actions cause deaths, which is why I believe it is wrong for many on the left to idol worship.
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