A book I picked up a while ago but never got around to reading, this one has been on my TO DO list for some time and yesterday when taking the kids to the local pool I finally picked it up to make a start on it. It’s an interesting book because apart from the Preface and Introduction it’s a compilation of direct quotes and communications from Julian Assange, kind of sorted and categorized into sections that are related, or even complementary.
It’s the sort of book that you can pick up and grab a few snippets out of context, so for someone like me who struggles with the daily juggle it’s a book that I can consume over a few sittings even if they are months apart. It is similar in that way to 2 of my other favourite books The Art of War by Sun Tzu and Warrior of the Light by Paulo Coelho which are also broken up into snippets. You can always find the odd wisdom or insight even if you only have time to digest a couple of pages.
What struck me about this book in particular is that this guy Julian Assange really has some visionary insights to share about the modern world and the problems we face. I know that many of my American friends might buy into the whole "He’s a Threat to National Security" and other stories that people have used to slur his character and justify his persecution, but I personally see him more as a modern day Nelson Mandela. Sure, he’s not fighting racism specifically but he is espousing freedom for his people (us) and being persecuted by the empire that he is trying to expose for its evils.
I relate to him on many levels. He’s from my country and my generation and he speaks about a number of things that resonate deeply with me, such as a strong belief that the Internet will be our generations primary tool of emancipation. There are a number of brutal truths that he speaks which would be taboo to discuss in our current mainstream discourse so in some ways it feels a bit like Goldsteins book in 1984 – just reading it is a bit of a revolutionary act itself.
His ongoing persecution in my opinion is one of the great disgraces of our Western Democracies. He is being made an example of and Whistleblowers and Freelance Journalists around the world would be thinking twice before speaking out about the injustices they see lest they share his fate. The world is just a little bit darker while he remains behind bars.
Free Julian Assange!
