Wikileaks, the new internet sensation has been heralded as a new face for government clarity. Wikileaks has been releasing documents that they have been given. Documents the government has decided are too sensitive for the people to see. Julian Assange is now the enemy of democratic governments and may face prosecution. Many people have jumped up in support of wikileaks and claim Julian Assange to be the new face of accountable government. But is Julian Assange the face we the people really need? After watching the Doha Debates, I can see valid reasoning to either side, government clarity is something that any informed citizen can appreciate but to the same extent, is the clarity safe or failproof? Men in the debates postulate that the clarity given by wikileaks is skewed in itself, but is skewed clarity clear? Of course not, but we also need to ask if people and democratic society can survive the clarity Assange proposes? During World War 2 Winston Churchill was quoted "if the people knew what was going on across the channel; the war would end tomorrow" can the same be said for modern society? I would agree but I do not think the public response would end at the end of war, I believe that there would be much larger repercussions, maybe even the disestablishment of government. Anybody who asks if that may be a good thing is clearly not giving it any real thought. Can we, as a people craving freedom and simultaneous order afford a collapse in government? No, civil liberties and rights are only as absolute as the government that provides them. Let's suppose Assange continues, can we afford to jeopardize the global community? In an age where governments are so intertwined, the end of diplomacy would mark the end of human flourishing.
Furthermore in terms of law are the means by which wikileaks obtains it's information, in terms of Bradley Manning, Julian Assange took classified from a private in the military, Assange then released the information. We cannot act on the assumption that Assange did not know the information he had received was classified, to that extent can we not confirm that Assange was acting outside of the law? Under what circumstances can we ignore a breach of the law? Are we saying that it is acceptable to mould law in such a way that we can have Assange's work as a golden exception to laws involving privacy? We also need to realize that Assange is not only complicating the privacy of governments but the privacy of the common people, What I am trying to say is wikileaks is not perfect and is entirely incapable of functioning within the parameters of the law or in the general interest of the people.
