or: Why I Like What Julian Assange is Doing.
In case you didn't know, Julian Assange is the face behind/of WikiLeaks, the "notorious" website dedicated to exposing government fraud. Above is a picture of him doing what he does best: staring down wrongdoers.
Currently, the main WikiLeaks site is undergoing a Denial of Service attack which has crippled its main servers. Various ISPs are also blocking the site. The Library of Congress has disallowed access to the site from its computers. The army is intimidating soldiers into not accessing the site.
I can understand the backlash: WikiLeaks scares the shit out of the government and corporations. Why? Because of the government's and corporations' illicit, illegal, unethical, corrupt policies and behavior. They know they did wrong, and they don't want anybody to find out.
If the past 2-3 (read 20-30 [read 200-300]) years have taught us anything, it is that unregulated capitalism is a flawed sysetm and doomed to fail. And failed it has. 1929? Check. 1970's? Check. Reaganomics? Double-check. 2000? Check. 2008-present? Super-check.
The most recent meltdown was caused because America's megabanks innovated new ways to get around pesky laws that protect common people in the mid-80s, figured out in the late-90s that they could get away with it on a large scale, then in the 00s exploited the hell out of the system. The result? Massive foreclosures, massive recession, massive job loss. This lead to a crashed economy, a GOP congressional victory, and even more corporate corruption. Ever heard of a "rocket docket?" Retired judges spending 30 seconds on a case where most of the time the defendats--ie, those getting foreclosed on--don't know they can go to court to defend themselves, and when they do, the most they can get is an extension, because the only was a foreclosure rocket docket can function well is to judge in favor of the banks. Even why they have forged or missing documents, dates that don't line up, and a fake deed history. All true.
Moving to the government, yeah, it sucks to have hundreds of thousands of war documents leak out. Especially when you're still in that war. Especially when you're not really sure if you're winning that war. Especially if a lot of people aren't sure you should even be in that war. Especially if you're doing legally curious things--waterboarding, anyone?
Obama went into office wanting to fix a broken government. Then he was confronted by the broken government, and the sheer immensity of its brokenness almost broke Obama. He's been able to nevertheless get all kinds of great things through, and he should be admired for that. He should also be remembered and admired as The One Who Tried. Because of his efforts, we now know that the only way Washington can be fixed is by burning it to the ground and starting over. I will be happy to argue this point with you.
So when WikiLeaks unleashed Cablegate--251,287 leaked United States embassy cables--on Sunday last, it is not a blight for Obama. It is a large bundle of logs thrown at the base of Washington, DC. On a side note, some of the stuff in there is really interesting. A bunch of stuff regarding Ukraine has popped up which is very revealing, like former President Kuchma blasting the current and previous Ukrainian administrations, making candid personal attacks against the Big Three (Yanukovich, Yushchenko, and Tymoshchenko).
Assange has stated that at the beginning of next year he will be releasing hundreds of thousands of documents of one of the largest American corporations. I think this is wonderful. I honestly do. If Americans knew the level of unscrupularity on Wall Street (and in other big businesses), really and truly understood what it is capitalism is all about, then we would begin to see real change. Real need for regulation. Real need for guarantees on the safety of citizens from ravenous corporations. Real need for corporate reform. Reel need for laws limiting the power of business. Real need for leveling the playing field, poverty-gap wise. Real need for Americans to get off their lazy, self-indulgent asses and actually do something (it's not that hard to make a phone call or write a letter. Or set something on fire).
This is why WikiLeaks is just what America needs. It is a blow-to-the-head wakeup call. It is a sort of call to arms. Bravo, Assange. Enjoy your servers' nuclear-bomb proof underground cave shelter and keep on keepin' on.
0 comments: on "Oh, Just Leakin'"
Post a Comment