Angels or Demons?

Today's Tribune de Genève has an article announcing that Julian Assange, editor-in-chief and spokesperson of the whistleblower site Wikileaks, is awaited in Geneva today on the eve of a review of US-sanctioned actions in Afghanistan and Iraq by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights.  

Assange is an Australian-born internet activist, who is literally being hounded from country to country - reserving hotel rooms under false names, never sleeping in the same bed twice, paying cash instead of by credit card, and only utilizing encrypted cellphones.  This is because Wikileaks has disseminated, among other things: documents about the Icelandic Kaupthing Bank and its doubtful lending practices; the corruption of the family of the ex-President of Kenya, Daniel Arap Moi; obscure practices of Scientology; and email from the private account of the almost one-half term former governor of Alaska, professional political grifter and anointee of the US Tea Party, Sarah Palin.  As one Internet guru, Clay Shirky, puts it, "Wikileaks has without a doubt produced more scoops in three years than the Washington Post in thirty."

Despite the transparency provided by Wikileaks about issues that should indeed be presented truthfully to the public, the Guardian newpaper points out that Assange is "force-feeding truth to a world that has no stomach for it."  Unlike the sixties and seventies when there was an active counterculture, Assange is an anomaly in the world today.  There is a real contrast between the way that Assange's revelations have been received today compared to those revealed in the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg in 1971.

The Guardian notes further:

In the 1970s - when hippies were alive and kicking - there was 'a generation that valued integrity and the principle of truth.' People were concerned about the substance of the leaks, the discovery that the US president had lied to the people.

By contrast, even though the Wikileaks revelations tell of killings and torture in Iraq that are more shocking than those exposed by the Pentagon Papers, 'all anyone seems to talk about is what a jerk the guy [Assange] is.' ...

In Ellsberg's time, Assange's revelations would have incited mass protests and indignant calls for accountability. The government was the target. Now, we seem to be unsurprised by the substance of the leaks and instead of protesting about that, we appear to accept that Assange is a fair target.

Yes, the world has changed.  A large part of that change is due to formerly trusted news sources being less interested in investigating facts and reporting the news than they are simply in repeating what their corporate masters tell them to.  Even when major rallies and protests result, unless those rallies are the news "flavor of the day" such as anything to do with Tea Party antics, many print and broadcast networks don't cover them at all.  For example, more than 215,000 people flocked to Washington, DC last weekend to attend Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear."  US media sources did not even send reporters to cover the rally even though Stewart and Colbert, both of whom are comedians, not journalists, emphasized the nonpartisan nature of the rally and made a plea that we try to have political discourse rather than the shouting that all too often passes for it.  More seriously, many anti-war protests in 2003 were not covered at all.  But let 300 Tea Baggers gather somewhere - anywhere - and the US media report the event ad nauseam as if it meant something other than ignorance and confusion reinforcing ignorance and confusion.

We are being "dumbed-down" to an amazing degree and kept distracted enough about our jobs, our families and our economic futures  - or fear of the "other" - so that we don't even realize how we are being returned to an era of general serfdom.  How much of this is deliberate and how much is merely incidental is beside the point.  It is happening right before our eyes.

People like Assange are trying to open our eyes and present the truths that we should all be paying attention to.  Assange was charged with rape in Sweden last summer after presenting some patently harsh truths about US conduct.  Those charges seemed to be conveniently timed and have primarily been discredited, although they keep being persistently revived.  Some of us remember how others who tried to speak truth were subsequently smeared and/or even conveniently eliminated.  I remember how the late Senator Paul Wellstone courageously spoke out against and opposed the Iraq War Resolution in 2002.  He was branded as "crazy." Shortly after that, his small airplane crashed mysteriously, killing him and several family members.  During his memorial celebration in Minnesota, the news networks called those who were giving speeches "partisan politicians."   That meme was repeated until his political opponent was elected - and even for years thereafter. 

To governments and institutions that lie and continue to mislead - all the while acting for the benefit and interest of a few, primarily those who are already powerful and wealthy - Julian Assange and those like him are demons.  To those of us who value truth, they are angels.