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On Tue, 7 Dec 2010 12:53:24 +1000 Gary MacLennan <gary.maclenn...@gmail.com> writes: > I think what has been most striking about the whole WikiLeaks drama is not the contents of the leaks, which, so far, seem to contain few surprises, but rather in the wildly hysterical, over the top, reactions that have been coming from leaders of the US and other governments, as well as the sycophantic corporate media. Here, in the US, we also have leading politicians calling for the prosecution of Mr. Assange for treason, even though he is not a US citizen, and we even have some pols like Mike Huckabee who are calling for Assange's assasination. The whole thing has the character of an Orwellian "hate week" event, the upshot of which will, I think, further discredit all of these people and institutions. Perhaps, more importantly, I think the WikiLeaks drama marks the beginning of the end of the security state as we have known it , which began its rise in the Second World War and achieved hegemonic status during the cold war. Up to now, technological developments, especially those in information technology, seemed to merely reinforce the power of the security state. Now, it seems that technology may be working against the continued viability of the security state, given that it is now possible for a very low level bureaucrat, or even a mere clerk, to download gigabytes of sensitive information and upload it all on to the Internet. Even if WikiLeaks itself should go away, we can expect that there will be multitudes of new websites that will be doing much the same thing. > > I don't wish to sound naive here, but I have been wondering how > important > this story is in terms of its impact on the class struggle and > world > politics? I would be very interested to hear comrades opinions on > this. > The Angry Arab has opined that Lebanese and Middle East politics > have been > altered fundamentally. I suspect that the greatest impact will be in places like the Middle East where a number of governments and political leaders have been exposed as being two-faced. > > By way of contrast the single mention of Australia so far has > resulted in a > front page endorsement of Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd by the > Australian's > foreign Editor. Rudd threats against China have endeared him to the > Murdoch > camp it would seem. Whether further leaks will do some damage > remains of > course to be seen. > > So far, if I am right, the leaks show a world dominated by America > and with > non-American politicians engaged a a variety of grovelling and > ass-kissing > gestures. Granted some granted have been pretending to independence. > These > revelations are hardly surprising, but is there something I am not > getting > here? > > For me the only surprise is that things have turned out as bad as we > said > they were. > > Still what we are possibly seeing is yet another moment in the > seemingly > endless series of crisss of the liberal world view. Tedious as it is > to see > liberals trying and generally succeeding in not awakening to the > true nature > of the world, the leaks might yet prove a leak too far. > > comradely > > Gary > ________________________________________________ > Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu > Set your options at: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/farmelantj%40juno.com > Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math ____________________________________________________________ Globe Life Insurance $1* Buys $50,000 Life Insurance. Adults or Children. No Medical Exam. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4cfda5c65edd2656e11st01vuc ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
