The Wikileaks collection

[Ken White]

But I am a little disappointed that so many good people are hyperventilating about wikileaks. I think the long term trajectory of our civilization (and yes, I said "our")is towards greater transparency and the first large country to get used to it may well be the United States and that is going to be a good thing...I think Julian Assange has done modern civilization a great service.

The hyperventilating is being done by the US Political class who believe (wrongly) that they must be seen as 'Doing something.' They lie so much to get elected that they continue to do that at any opportunity -- what better lie than to fulminate at someone, not an American that we probably cannot touch, deter or harm? You'd think they'd realize that foolishness is not helpful to the nation (on an international basis in particular) but they aren't concerned about that, they are concerned only with domestic politics and their reelection...

They are aided in this charade -- and that's what it is -- by the US Media, most of whom are little more than gossip mongers and to whom Julian A. has given a trove of gossip which they must try to embellish and make into the major story that it is not. So there's a whole lot of sound and fury in Washington and the media but almost none on the ground in the broader US.

This site is heavily populated with people who do or did work for or with the US Government. Most of those people are not particularly concerned with what the leak did to the US and I think a good many disagree with much of the Government's pronouncements and policy on the issue. However, they are totally hacked off at Manning (or whoever...) and Assange because they know those folks just made their jobs much harder.

What should happen is the leaker should be found and shot -- we won't do that, not the American way. We do not punish the guilty. We punish the innocent. What we will do is set more snoopers about, tighten all the bureaucratic rules, forbid the use of thumb drives, CDs or removable media, make it incredibly difficult to exchange information, initiate new and burdensome rules for clearances and more. Much more. Much, much more -- and it's already started.

So the guys are mad at Manning or whoever for stealing the material but they are really mad at Assange for making their jobs difficult.

On your broader philosophical note, two points. Transparency is a good thing, no question, yet there is also a need for discretion. There is and has been a natural tension between those two necessities and the preponderance of value has tilted back and forth. I agree that more transparency is probably a better alternative and that the natural penchant for bureaucracies to attempt to hide their shortfalls needs to be removed. I also agree the trajectory recently has been and is toward more transparency. However, I'm not at all convinced the Wikileaks modus is a good way to speed up or improve on that trajectory.

I'm not sure Assange has done a service. Governments around the world will do the same thing that the US is doing right now -- tighten the rules. I suspect you'll see less rather than more transparency.

The pendulum is likely to reverse its swing as a result of this...