>Concerning WikiLeaks,
>
>Assange was not supposed to be persecuted by the USG, due to the fear >that
he might reveal what he knows. It's just something that, >accidentally,
happened. And, yes. I agree that this fact has left the >USG with a bad
(public) image. (But, don't do a lot of things that it >does? And, does
anything change because of that?...)
Maybe this is my biggest problem about concentrating so much energy on
conspiracies. It is not the case that I don't think conspiracies exist. As I
said, people do conspire, and powerful people conspire as well (whether or
not they are always successful). I just don't see Wikileaks as a conspiracy
of the powerful, and you provide no evidence to the contrary. What changed
after Wikileaks? Wikileaks has caused a crisis of authority, breaking the
hegemony of Empire and allowing us to see the authoritarian force underneath.
Does anything change because of that? Read current world events and decide. I
think things do change and are changing. Again though, I don't see things as
black and white as you do.
I am familiar with the Bilderberg Group. An annual meeting of powerful people
to discuss world events and yes, conspire. I looked at the link to the book
and it would be interesting to read. I don't purchase through Amazon though
so I will look elsewhere. This is a bit what I was trying to point out. It is
so easy to focus on these secret societies, and then buy the books about them
through one of the largest Internet monopolies; one that is doing more to
impose digital handcuffs on us than most others. It seems to me that a more
direct action is sometimes more useful, such as refusing to do business with
these kinds of companies that promote non-free media. After all, I believe
this is also what the free software movement is about, and hopefully why you
are posting on the Trisquel forum. This is part of the modern hegemony of
civil society, as I see it. Maybe Gramsci's Prison Notebooks would be an
interesting read.
My comment about "not having to do anything" was a bit of a cheeky joke.
However, it does seem to me (not because of inaction on the part of those who
oppose Empire) that our current system is indeed imploding and that this is
contrary to the interests of the system that dominates our lives. I don't
think that they (powerful people, corporations and governments) know how to
fix it. I see the "system" more as a kind of Frankenstein than as a carefully
orchestrated symphony conducted by the likes of the Bilderbergs. Have you
read Negri and Hardt's Empire series, I think you might enjoy?
My problem with the whole secret symbols stuff is not that they don't exist,
but rather that some people tend to take it too far, as in the case of the
butterfly logo of the Freedom Box project. I see it in critiques of other
logos, where if there is some sort of triangle somewhere, someone immediately
points out that it is the eye of Horus or whatever and that the mason's are
going to take over the world. While Alex Jones is not completely
uninteresting, he is a bit of a right-wing nut case, in my opinion.
In any case, I do wonder whether all of this attention on conspiracies does
not really serve as more of a distraction from the things that are really
important, one of these currently being the attempt to free ourselves from
the Hegemony that does indeed manufacture consent in our civil societies. How
to free ourselves from the violence of the "political society" is something
that comes after. First we have to become free from the ideology that
exercises the more subtle type of domination. I have to agree with B. Marley
here, "we need to free our minds." At this point in time, it seems that free
software, free hardware and free media are focal points in this struggle for
freedom of thought.
Anyway, we can always agree do disagree, if that is the case. I'm sure your
intentions are good, as are mine.
