See also the author's earlier articulate, intelligent, and naturally controversial defense of Wikileaks, which depends on the crucial distinction between the (more or less) permanent state apparatus (whose agents are unelected and whose actions are often secret) and the temporary government power, vested in the US in elected representatives, which imperfectly harnesses it. It ends with this:<p>"Of course, those jealously protective of the privileges of unaccountable state power will tell us that people will die if we can read their email, but so what? Different people, maybe more people, will die if we can't."<p><a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/11/overseeing_state_secrecy" rel="nofollow">http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/11/ov...</a>
"If we take the inevitability of future large leaks for granted, then I think the debate must eventually centre on the things that will determine the supply of leakers and leaks. Some of us wish to encourage in individuals the sense of justice which would embolden them to challenge the institutions that control our fate by bringing their secrets to light. Some of us wish to encourage in individuals ever greater fealty and submission to corporations and the state in order to protect the privileges and prerogatives of the powerful."
I think the best point this piece makes is that things have changed. This is not something you can wish or threaten away. Nothing ever goes back to the way it was after something as profound as all of this.
I hope the mainstream media in general wake up to this soon. Charlie Rose and others seem to think this is a matter of stopping Assange. Wikileaks is no more about Assange than DNA is about Francis Crick.
The second paragraph suggests that Julian Assange is just a lightning-rod, to deflect attention from the real work. Or at least is entirely replaceable. This may be true, any thought?
personally I think this is what it is all about : <a href="http://cryptome.org/0002/ja-conspiracies.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://cryptome.org/0002/ja-conspiracies.pdf</a>