Julian Assange has managed to alert commentators of every political stripe to the idea that someone (or, more accurately, organised gangs of someones) are hideously exploiting the public's lapdog allegiance to an all-powerful state.
Some of us - for a bloody long time - have been saying that you'd be better off looking for truth in a politician's farting patterns rather than in what they say while they smile and insist they're working for you. Yes, just you.
You know they are looking after your interests, err, because they need your vote, don't they? So they must be on your side, right?
OK, sometimes they destroy your life with some silly scheme their preferred 'partners' suggested (the same partners who are paid to do so by the very same system which enriches politicians), but it's all for your own good, innit?
We all think the same way, d'you see? We all want certain things banned at the behest of charities and civil servants, for example, and we are all desperately crying out to be regulated, controlled, denormalised and criminalised on the say-so of someone else who is always right by virtue of being paid to produce stats which 'prove' they are right.
Everything is cool. You may be climbing the walls in anger but that calm, generous, voice of your representative is there to reassure you that - while his idea is going to screw you roughly - you mustn't fret. Politicians are interested only in what you are interested in yourself. Honest.
Funny, then, that when someone like Assange gives the public something which they are overwhelmingly in favour of, politicians squeal like stuck pigs, hyperbolise about non-existent dangers, and issue an APB entitled "get the bastard".
Not just in one country, either. Oh no, they all get together and defend their dictatorial selves from inconvenient (as, let's face it, that's about all they are) revelations with death threats; wild accusations of fantasy fatalities (their stock-in trade); before corralling all the forces at their disposal to silence dissent.
The fact that the world's public - from, for want of more international terms, 'Mailites' to 'Guardianistas' - are heavily lined up behind Assange holds no water for these selfish bastards. So they go into self-preservation mode despite compelling evidence of resistance from the global population.
Freeze his bank account? Everyday people take the bank's website down. Call a mate to stop the leaks being aired on the 'net? Everyday people will work to ensure it stays there. Eradicate all possible routes of public donations to Assange's cause? Everyday people will attack those who are doing the eradicating. All applauded from the sidelines by an approving popular majority.
Such behaviour, when viewed in a rational and objective manner (not a perspective natural to politicians in the 21st century, unfortunately), should be taken as a warning that politicians have boiled so much piss that we can't bear to trust any of them anymore; that we despise every last one of them for ignoring their employers (that is, us) and carrying on with their self-enhancing agenda for too long; that they should rein in their nonsense and begin to realise that they are there to serve us instead of merely protecting their own careers and kind.
The problem is that they are incapable of doing so. All have been through the machinery which produces career bullshit merchants, and none are capable of the humility to admit that they have seriously fucked things up.
Assange isn't a problem. His leaks are a timely solution to the debilitating worldwide phenomenon of politics failing to represent the interests of the people it was originally supposed to defend.
We're sick to the back teeth of quite absurd lies; of real people being treated with contempt; and of being played for every penny we own by those who refuse to be held accountable even when their venality and aversion to openness is displayed for all to see.
And who not only refuse, but also unleash violence on anyone who dares stand up to the self-preservatory shield they have constructed around their ivory towers.
Assange is in jail right now, whilst disgusting bastards who have righteously derogated the lives of everyone they are elected to serve, are free to call on their bullies to ensure that their self-indulgent pronouncements should never be called into question.
The relationship between politicians and the public has been strained for decades. It began as a mild irritation that parliaments had a habit of cocking a deaf 'un when they felt like it, but they now live in a world so divorced from the cares and concerns of their citizens that irritation has evolved into a quietly seething anger. But an anger which was largely lidded by its disparate nature of divided causes and separate issues.
The global administrative zeal with which Wikileaks - and Assange personally - has been pursued, though, has drawn all such groups, left, right, conformist or libertarian, together. The rapidly-escalated vitriolic spite of the worldwide political elite has never, but never, been seen when dealing with issues which the public hold dear.
But once politicians themselves see their control structures being broken down, no obstacle is great enough to effect an immediate bully-boy response. Even the death penalty - constantly rejected as barbaric when suggested by electorates - is all of a sudden considered palatable by those desperate to silence dissent.
People have been suspicious about the motives of their political elites for many a year, but Wikileaks have now left us all in no doubt whatsoever. No matter how hard-working a political system claims to be for its citizens, such effort pales into insignificance when compared to the mighty trees they will pull up to defend themselves from a challenge to their self-appointed power.
The most damaging revelation we have seen from Wikileaks this week is that governments everywhere see populations as the enemy; and their own self-preservation as paramount.
The myth of democracy has never been laid more bare.
31 comments:
Damn fine post, Dick.
Excellent Stuff Mr.P..
I was cheering along with every sentence (and waving the whisky bottle about).
It is so good to see the buggers squeal. As they keep telling us every time they encroach upon what little remains of our freedom, "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear". Bastards...
Indeed a fine post, but one which I fear seems rather dated. Doesn't all this just provide the neon to something already writ large?
Damn you, Puddlecote, damn you to hell.
I was going to write something on this, having spent the afternoon collecting my thoughts. No point now having read your deconstruction of the situation.
Oh well . . .
Outstanding analysis, Mr. P. One can only hope that those on the inside of the prison that currently contains Mr. A. are also on his side.
Ta, all. I was in a bit of a mood. Frivolity will resume tomorrow with bikinis. ;)
Gawain: Indeed. It's been around for a while, but Assange seems to have concentrated all wings of public opinion, as far as I can see. He should get a medal, not jail time.
Every word.
Eloquently ranted, sir.
I'd take my hat off but you won't like what's under it.
Hmm, I wonder if the real threat from Assange's disclosures might not be that he hacked into a few of the WHO, NHS, FDA and CDC secret communications and found out the bureacRATS in charge are laughing about succeeding in their worldwide smoking bans and freedom robbing denormalization pogroms based on lies about SHS.
Now THAT would be a revelation governments under the auspices and control of their blessed UN would surely not tolerate, don't you think.
Does anyone else simply not believe the rape charge against Assange?
To me it looks like a reason to get him in prison quick. Any old charge would do, but rape has to be there in the top ten. He's got to be put inside quick, any how, any way.
Is it credible that the man who's been leaking all this damning stuff is also... a rapist?
Wikileaks is like Climategate in spades.
I am with Frank Davis, I don't believe he suddenly became a rapist. Just to convenient.I too wish he had information to leak on second hand smoke and e-cigarettes.The people of this world are being delude if they think the governments we currently have are going make them safe. Who is going to protect us from our governments?
I always enjoy your blog Mr. Puddlecote, Mr.Davis, and Patsy Nurse.
I am with Frank Davis, I don't believe he suddenly became a rapist. Just to convenient.I too wish he had information to leak on second hand smoke and e-cigarettes.The people of this world are being delude if they think the governments we currently have are going make them safe. Who is going to protect us from our governments?
I always enjoy your blog Mr. Puddlecote, Mr.Davis, and Patsy Nurse.
What's been described so far doesn't even come close to the definition of 'rape', unless Julie Bindel's been allowed to set Swedish law....
And damn fine post, DP!
Fuck yeah!
No other reaction will do I'm afraid. Hopefully people will begin to realise we need to stop tinkering with the system and the management of the plantation and emancipate ourselves from this bollocks completely.
Statism - the god that failed.
Can't we get this post sent to every bastard in Parliament?
"They don't like it up 'em Captain Mainwaring."
Julian Assange is a hero. No doubt about it.
Excellent post. Smiled all the way through it :)
I agree totally with your conclusion but will any of 'the people' even notice?
This article sets out how the rape claim was brought:
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/12/07/julian-assange-in-the-honey-trap/
Jay
Anon 2.11 - Seriously, I don't see why Wikileaks wouldn't welcome material on smoking bans. Their enforcement globally within a short time frame suggests a concerted effort, opposition to them is not reported in the media, the danger of SHS has been hyped, tobacco contro is riddled with vested interests, dissenting voices are silenced, and so on.
Jay
Top post! This Wikileaks affair is really opening a lot of people's eyes. Let's hope they stay open.
I find it hard to believe there were so many people out there who had not worked out that politicians are greedy, self - indulgent, self serving twats but as that seems to be the case and the Wikileaks stuff has woken some of them up to the fact I suppose it's good.
Fucking boring though, isn't it?
Excellent post Dick; I have become increasingly sympathetic to Wikileaks, especially in view of the many concerted attacks it has had to withstand.
I wish the opposition well.
Paul
Hurry and assassinate the terrorist bastard Assange before he gives his criminal network the signal to finish their heinous assault on freedom on behalf of the terrorists who want to enslave us all.
Hurry, hurry, kill the traitor now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36xEvVnF2I
Watch for further persuasion from your local friendly fascist. Sleep.
While I can understand the desire to disbelieve the sensational charges against Assange but there is no need for a manufactured pretext. Maybe Assange was foolish or may not be saintly in his private life.
You don't have to approve of his private life to applaud and praise the public actions and impact of Wikileaks and Julian Assange.
Will the public ultimately care after the focus on Wikileaks fades? Will Assange's eventual punishment for embarrassing the state have been worth what he tried to accomplish? The state is evaluating its options.
So what about those bikinis?
Jay on the rollout of anti smoking policy: "suggests a concerted effort."
At the risk of appearing stupid, is there even any reasonable level of doubt? Serious question.
The same set of policies (EU) and the same strategy for poisoning public opinion, deliberately misleading science by press release using NGO and NPO groups. Corrected results are ignored.
The NGO/NPO propaganda occur in US and UK at least.
'concerted effort' yes? and by highly motivated well paid liars who believe lies are justifiable.
Sorry for drifting from the ++++ op.
Brian: Bikinis, as promised. :)
@Dr Brian - no doubt in my mind (I was just being moderate) :)
Jay
Cheers Dick, Jay.
It's rare that how little has changed from the time before the western democracies replaced the old overt systems of control is forced into view. In the past power and wealth were concentrated in an insulated privileged class. Unaware and barely concerned with life beyond the gate, it would periodically be violently overthrown when the misery of being a surf became no longer tolerable.
The democracies that replaced the earlier regimes were not so much concessions to the rights of man as a more effective means for monitoring and guiding public opinion. Given the occasional chance to choose from among the ruling class who would rule provided a pressure valve. "Consent of the governed" instilled a stake in its survival.
Anger at the leader, vented now and then prevented the wholesale bloodletting of the past and provided rulers the chance to adjust strategically, avoiding conditions that gave rose to instability and overthrow from below.
Even today, when push comes to shove, where power really lies is asserted, thankfully without the shedding of blood. Nudging and nagging is just the invisible hand of the state (no longer the "ruling class") managing the public and maximizing their own utility.
But please, at least spare us the insult of nudging us into such narrow and empty existences. It's undignified. And not much to ask.
As 'they' keep telling me,
"If you have nothing to hide (then) you have nothing to fear".
It would appear that 'they' do have something to hide !
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