Julian Assange

*sigh* looking at that face reminds me of how far the movement for Internet freedom has fallen. Let me put it to in more historical terms

When Beethoven wrote his third symphony, he dedicated it to Napoleon, whom he saw as the embodiment of the values of freedom and human dignity emerging from the French Revolution, calling it "a symphony to a great man." But, when Napoleon crowned himself emperor, Beethoven was heartbroken, and renamed his work "a symphony to the memory of a great man."

I'm a man who believes it is the patriotic duty of every citizen to question the actions of their government, as stated in the American Constitution. Naturally, when I first heard about Julian Assange and his efforts to bring accountability of government for no cost, I applauded him and wished him the best of luck in his various struggles.

But, then I heard that he was planning to charge people to view leaked documents, prompting me to do something with him that I have usually don't with governmental action: I questioned his motives.

The last straw came when I took a closer look at the large quantities of documents he had posted, which some had touted as being just as incriminating as the Pentagon Papers. Unfortunately, whereas the Pentagon Papers proved the government mislead the people about the state of the Vietnam war, these documents proved almost nothing. The great exposé I had been hoping for was little more than a collection of mundane transcripts of unrelated meetings and musings. The only thing shocking about the documents was the sheer quantity of them.

It is here that I came to the conclusion that I should have come to long ago, I was being led around by the nose, we all were. I am now worried that this man, in an attempt to increase his own celebrity, may have unwittingly doomed openness and freedom on the Internet, as I have noticed the government agencies paid comparatively little attention to the openness of the Internet before he came along. I suppose this is the great danger of putting a man up on a pedestal, his words become gold to the ears of all those listening. As depressing as it may sound, I think, perhaps, the only lesson I learned form the Assange saga is that we should listen to ourselves, we're the only people we can rely on to do anything right.