Wednesday, December 15, 2010

WikiLeaks

There seems to be a move afoot to target the budding worldwide movement of free thinkers the world over who seek to seize the freedom of the word from government. United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finds herself in what must be an uncomfortable position, trying to convince other world leaders (and their minions) to trust the United States Government. Many world leaders are in what must be an enviable position, at last having an opportunity to bruise the American nose (which too often butts-in to places it should not be), reminding officials of the United States Government about necessity and utility of a free press. A particularly impressive example of foreign rebuke comes from Vladimir Putin, about whom the Cable News Network (CNN) remarked:
Referring to the case against Assange, Putin, still smarting from previous U.S. lectures to him about democracy, retorted, "We have a saying here: 'Whoever's cow it was that mooed, yours should remain quiet.' So I would like to shoot the puck back at our American friends."
Well said, Vladimir.

Some regimes, like that in China, have taken another approach, seeking to prevent their citizens from learning the details of the leaked cable traffic. More ominous is the directive from the United States Government which seeks to prevent employees thereof from reading the content of the leaked cable traffic. Clearly, the Obama Administration is crawling into bed with the Chinese Communist Party.

How did it come to this state of affairs, where Russian political leaders are calling for tolerance of journalists and the political leaders of China and the United States arm-in-arm condemning the acts of journalists? Will the United States Government now jail authors for political dissent, just as authors are jailed in China?

It is also interesting that the faculty of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University have chimed in, arguing that Julian Assange is a defacto journalist, and is therefore entitled to publish what he has acquired in the way of leaked cable traffic from the United States Department of State.

Meanwhile, others are calling for restriction on the media, and particularly the free flow of information on the internet. They want Assange assassinated and they want the internet to be censored. These people, and particularly politicians, see the internet as a danger to their power, to their ability to control the minds of other people.

I have a prediction regarding these moves, and a challenge to those who would seek to censor, to control the flow of information, and to keep the great masses of people ignorant and repressed.

The challenge is quite simply, give it your best shot. Go ahead and try to retain the repression of free minds thinking as they will. Go ahead and try to keep the status quo functioning. You are doomed to failure.

The prediction is simple as well. Internet censorship is coming, to every nation. It will not however succeed. The ever increasing freedom of information flow will not be stopped, save by the complete annihilation of all sentient living beings. The reason that such censorship will not succeed is quite simple. Recall that before there was an internet, there were bulletin boards and telephones. Those days can return, and the quality of the technology available now will make an underground internet a quite feasible alternative to the official internet, should the need arise.

So, again, the challenge is, try to stifle people who wish to think free, for it shall not occur. Rather, such acts will only serve to embolden those who seek freedom of thought, and cement their collective resolve to overcome the thought-police.

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For background information related to this blog, see the websites at the following URLs:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/12/15/sweep.wikileaks/index.html?hpt=C2

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/romenesko/110885/columbia-j-school-staff-wikileaks-prosecution-sets-dangerous-precedent/

http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2010/12/05/actions-to-silence-cablegate-and-wikileaks-threats-against-assange/

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