Creepy and so true
![Freedom from Brains……… [originally Freedom from Want by Norman Rockwell]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhf7ggHeWT1qzufnjo1_1280.jpg)
[…]These actions have not gone unnoticed. Over the past two weeks, Wikileaks’ global support has grown until Wikileaks’ supporters were numbered in the millions, as the citizens of Western states were alerted to the accelerated decay of our democracies. The seriousness of the past two weeks’ events has not been lost on us. Assault has been openly conducted on the founding ideals of our political cultures, by the very officials elected to defend those ideals. In their rush to suppress Wikileaks by persecuting Julian Assange, our governments have made it clear that they are now hostile to their own people, and enemies of the sacred institutions and offices they now occupy. The constitutional rights established to protect us from the abuses of state power have been brushed aside.
We, at WL Central, condemn in the most serious terms this concerted assault on our democracies, carried out in the persecution of Julian Assange. Our support for Wikileaks has always been pursuant to our greater support for the ideals of a single standard of justice, and freedom from tyranny, towards which Julian Assange has worked with tireless dedication and at great personal risk. The persecution of Julian Assange is not the persecution of one man, but the persecution of us all. It is not a single injustice, but an injustice to end all pretence of justice. It is an emergency of historical significance.
We therefore address the governments and legislatures of the United States, of the European Union Member States, and the governments and parliaments of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth Nations, including, and especially, the government of Australia.
We affirm
- That Wikileaks is now an integral pillar in the international fourth estate.
- That Wikileaks’ work since its foundation demonstrates exigent flaws in the political cultures of our democracies, with dire consequences for domestic and global justice.
- That Wikileaks is therefore of critical importance to the cause of reform in our societies, and of critical importance to the maintenance of our freedoms.
- That Wikileaks is in fact insuppressable, and that any attempts to suppress it will not attain their goal, but cause further harm to our legal orders, and to the relationship between the governments and their peoples.
- That therefore any attack on Wikileaks or its staff or supporters is to be interpreted as an attack on our political cultures themselves.
- That the Australian government will meet its duty of advocacy for one of its own citizens and defend Julian Assange to the limits of its means.
- That governments will recognize Wikileaks as enjoying the same freedoms to communicate information as do we all, as well as those freedoms particular to the press.
- That governments will react to Wikileaks, not by further compounding their mistakes, but by resolving to act so as to be beyond reproach.
We urge
06 December 2010
WikiLeaks has become the symbol of disturbing information that can’t be stopped. Recent declarations and actions against the organization clearly expose the will of governments to control the Internet. From now on, it seems that both sides are fighting a battle that could be one of the most important that we must wage for the future of our democracies. On one side, those who would like to put the Internet under control, through administrative or privatized censorship, in order to remain in power. On the other, citizens of the word at large ready build networked societies in which the sharing of knowledge, freedom of expression and the increased transparency allowed for by the Internet must be protected and strengthened at all costs. … Read more
Ah freedom.. if you can afford it, you can have it.. though probably not if you live in the USofA ;(
