Who is Julian Assange? Tantalizing clues may be found in what appears to be his "Selected Correspondence," which were posted on a now defunct site, IQ.org. OpenTopic dug through the writings in web archives and discovered diary entries that paint a revealing portrait of the WikiLeaks founder. Starting in June 2006, the year WikiLeaks was created, the posts unveil a cult-like, idealistic, romantic, intellectual hacker -- a male Lisbeth Salander if you like -- who theorizes about diplomacy, computer coding, consumerism, the corporate state, even urination, and reveres Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, and Che Guevara.
In his most interesting postings from that period, Assange's writings display a serious interest in anarchist intellectuals; a romantic sense of himself as "village atheist" who was wooing the minister's daughter; a revealing interest in misanthropic child prodigies; a profound disregard for consumer society; and, finally, a deep, deep reverence for the "Voltaires, Galileos, and Principias of truth, on the Gutenburgs [sic], Marconis and Internets of truth," who are the "serial killers of delusion, those brutal, driven and obsessed miners of reality, smashing, smashing, smashing every rotten edifice until all is ruins and the seeds of the new."
Among his postings:
-- Assange's correspondence is headed with a quote from the German writer Gustav Landauer, asserting that the "State is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of behavior; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently toward one another... We are the state, and we shall continue to be the state until we have created the institutions that form a real community and society of men." A German writer who translated Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman, Landauer was deeply influenced by anarchists including Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin.
-- During a stay in Canberra at the Australian National University, Assange characterizes himself as having turned, "somewhat disgracefully, into a sort of Chesterton's Hardy [an apparent reference to G.K. Chesterton's biography of Thomas Hardy] the village atheist, brooding and blaspheming over the village idiot, while [young women], for their part, tried to convert me with the rise and fall their bosoms." Ultimately, Assange woos a woman who "hardly know[s] anything," but secretly longs for "a man willing to openly disagree with her father. All along she had needed a man to devote herself to. All along she had failed to find a man worthy of being called a man, failed to find a man who would not bow to gods, so she had chosen a god unworthy of being called a god, but who would not bow to a man."
-- Assange reflects, interestingly, on the problem of child prodigies who are severely maladjusted. Most notably, Assange quotes Aldous Huxley writing about Sir Isaac Newton: "For the price Newton had to pay for being a supreme intellect was that he was incapable of friendship, love, fatherhood, and many other desirable things. As a man he was a failure; as a monster he was superb."
-- Assange reflects on the relative strength of community among Islamic fundamentalists versus American consumers and concludes that "the promise of better shopping does not move the heart to the great acts of love or sacrifice required in war."
-- Assange's last posting, dated August 29, 2007, muses on the relativism of truth: "Yet just as we feel all hope is lost and we sink back into the miasma, back to the shadow world of ghosts and gods, a miracle arises; everywhere before the direction of self interest is known, people yearn to see where its compass points and then they hunger for truth with passion and beauty and insight. He loves me. He loves me not. Here then is the truth to set them free. Free from the manipulations and constraints of the mendacious. Free to choose their path, free to remove the ring from their noses, free to look up into the infinite voids and choose wonder over whatever gets them though. And before this feeling to cast blessings on the profits and prophets of truth, on the liberators and martyrs of truth, on the Voltaires, Galileos, and Principias of truth, on the Gutenburgs [sic], Marconis and Internets of truth, on those serial killers of delusion, those brutal, driven and obsessed miners of reality, smashing, smashing, smashing every rotten edifice until all is ruins and the seeds of the new."
For a full breakdown, read more at OpenTopic.
Julian Assange - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An Interview With WikiLeaks' Julian Assange - Andy Greenberg - The ...
Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks | Video on TED.com
Did WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange commit a crime? - CSMonitor.com
Years ago, many politicians and pundits alike tried the same tactics on Ellsburg. The stakes this time are just as crucial.
So if Unger wants to ask the relevant question "Who is Julian Assange?" then why isn't he looking at Assange's childhood?
Assange's mother was connected to an Australian cult that attempted mind-control experiments on their children, including "identity experiments" that included dyeing the children's hair white or platinum blonde.
Look up Anne Hamilton Byrne on Wikipedia
Google Assange + Anne Hamilton Byrne
Is Unger ready to write a very uncomfortable article that will challenge conventional wisdom?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout
But it's complicated -- I know.
Of course governments require secrecy and confidentiality to conduct business. Any organization in a competitive environment does. The same holds for businesses and even families or sports teams. All things being equal, an organization is less able to secure its information will lose out to the organization that can keep its information and plans secure.
The fact that you people can't grasp this shows just how far 'out there' you are.
The only truth wikileaks exposed was that the US is too loose and open with information. The real damage is that US will have more trouble gathering intel from allies and informants, and will self impose new restrictions on sharing info. This means greater inefficiency and more vulnerability. But there is always a trade off.
I'd say give wikileaks maximum penalty for deliberately soliciting and publishing classified materials and trying to sabotage US diplomacy in theaters of conflict while we are at war. BUT - give them a 10% discount for exposing vulnerability in the system.
So if Julien gets 1 year behind bars for every doc he leaked (lets round it to 500,000 years in jail), we reduce it by 50,000 years. So 450,000 years total.
Is everyone cool with that?
I do not know Mr. Assange and I am no groupie. However, with the failure of the media apparatus over the last ten years, it is refreshing to see a journalist with big ones, speaking and leaking truth to power. I would tell the brother -- keep on keeping on...
He is no whistle blower pointing out criminal behavior. He is just releasing hundreds of thousands of docs hoping for a scandal or better yet a civil implosion. He doesn't care about the consequences to others.
The perfect anarchist.
No doubt he has fans here.
That stayed with me since the day you wrote it. I knew I would come back to respond. To prove your powerful point, we need only look at all the people exonerated of past accusations through DNA evidence. Of course the credit is given to science, but justice is the enabler of science. Also, look at all the belated Civil Rights era prosecutions. See how laws failed people long ago, and justice, if it was to be had in the moment where horror transpired, was not a question of what society could bestow, but what heart and mind could conceive of; such a case would be that of Mamie Till, who found justice and herself in tragedy unspeakable. ($Note: Any time I speak of the Till case, I am reminded to say that the Till case was an infamous case...there were many others that received little to no airtime, or ink -- and this continues today).
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/peopleevents/p_parents.html
Thanks for stating eloquently (thereby causing meditation, contemplation, and/ or immersion in the idea of) -- the eternal truth. Law is the stuff of humans -- flawed by that fact. Justice is the playing out of choices, energy, spirit, and all that is -- over what we call time, but really is just a continuation along whatever path.
Actually, I'd be in favor of requiring all candidates for president, as well as those in line for constitutional succession, to be completely vetted for eligibility through the judicial system as a prerequisite for nomination. Further, I'd introduce whatever legislation it took, including amending the constitution if necessary, to eliminate the possibility of forming dynasties (Roosevelt, Kennedy, Bush, and maybe Clinton), by establishing a minimum distance of consanguinity between previous presidents. No father-son, husband-wife, brother-brother, etc.
http://slatest.slate.com/id/2276690/
do not hook up in sweden
if your condom breaks, you may go to prison
Who said this is a free county?
But it is especially ironic that The Lib of Congress has censored its computers. The vile and undemocratic WikiLeaks will not be allowed to corrupt the innocent minds of TLoC workers.They will, however, have the freedom to peruse all their favorite porn and shopping sites, thank goodness.
The Library of Congress is not a private, for-profit corporation. It is supposed to be a temple of knowledge.
A-S-S-A-N-G-E!!!!!!!!!!!!
They are all puppets of the West/ USA/ UK. They are all under military rule or royal rule.
Their royalty doesn't even have any claim to history or royalty. They made up some silly stories about family lines going back a couple of hundred years, but it is all fake. The royal rulers were all installed by the military might of the USA.
Iran is a threat to them because any government that is not a puppet of the West is a threat to them. Do you remember the Iranian elections and protests/upheavel from last year? When did anything like that happen in Saudi Arabia? Never, because they are not a democracy.
The Saudi Royal family and their equivalents all over the Arab world are all lap dogs of big oil.
So are you saying that they are our puppets so it does not matter what their people might think?
We even considered invading Venezuela when Chavez nationalized their oil now that is a fine diplomatic solution to make against the leader of a sovereign nation. I think only Iraq and Afghanistan saved that country from being crushed under foot.
Don’t look now but we have become what we fought against when we fought for our freedom. I don’t have to like it. So being a free man I look for solutions that I can live with and do what I can towards those goals.
http://www.democracynow.org/