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I don't think there's necessarily intellectual inconsistency going on. I personally would like to live in a world with far fewer secrets - particularly kept by

I don't think there's necessarily intellectual inconsistency going on. I personally would like to live in a world with far fewer secrets - particularly kept by those with power, and I certainly defend wikileaks right to free speech and abhor calls for Assange to be murdered. That said, Wikileaks chooses what it releases and when. These choices matter in terms of the effects it has. This kind of release makes me wonder whether Wikileaks is anti-corruption, or is it anti-American? If it's the former, that's good for us all and I think it deserves support, but if it's the latter I absolutely don't. I don't think it's intellectually inconsistent to believe in Wikileaks's right to free speech, while simultaneously hoping that they use it in the most positive way possible. edit: Honestly this release is the most depressing thing I've seen in ages. I really want wikileaks to be a positive thing but it's looking like just more of the politics of punishment that it puports to be liberating us from.

blueben 16y ago
If you've been following the Wikileaks story, then you've seen the essays by Assange about what Wikileaks wants. It's very simple. A conspiracy needs communication to be effective; if you disable it's ability to communicate, it becomes less effective. Wikileaks exists to weaken trust in communications throughout the conspiracy thus rendering it less effective, and the release of documents like this serves exactly that purpose.
- cema 16y ago
  Not just any conspiracy: governmental conspiracy and corporational (as in "a large, perhaps transnational") conspiracy. He cannot leak Al Qaeda's communications these way (not that he would be against it, necessarily).
- rbarooah 16y ago
  I have read that. What I think he misses is that there isn't really a conspiracy - there is no bright line between us and 'them' - we all collude in the current state of affairs through want of something better. I think he has the opportunity to lead people to demand less corruption if he plays this right, but he equally could cause the opposite effect if he simply damages countries. If his agenda is to test only that hypothesis without regard to the consequenses then I'm saddened. The path taken to get there makes a difference to the outcome, and he's responsible for that too.

blueben 16y ago

If you've been following the Wikileaks story, then you've seen the essays by Assange about what Wikileaks wants. It's very simple. A conspiracy needs communication to be effective; if you disable it's ability to communicate, it becomes less effective. Wikileaks exists to weaken trust in communications throughout the conspiracy thus rendering it less effective, and the release of documents like this serves exactly that purpose.

cema 16y ago
Not just any conspiracy: governmental conspiracy and corporational (as in "a large, perhaps transnational") conspiracy. He cannot leak Al Qaeda's communications these way (not that he would be against it, necessarily).
rbarooah 16y ago
I have read that. What I think he misses is that there isn't really a conspiracy - there is no bright line between us and 'them' - we all collude in the current state of affairs through want of something better. I think he has the opportunity to lead people to demand less corruption if he plays this right, but he equally could cause the opposite effect if he simply damages countries. If his agenda is to test only that hypothesis without regard to the consequenses then I'm saddened. The path taken to get there makes a difference to the outcome, and he's responsible for that too.