Are you enjoying Wikileaks? I am

[erudito]

Someone observed in a discussion group I was at recently that Wikileaks was confirming "our" (i.e. the mildly libertarian/conservative) view of the world. That Russia was a country of gangster politics, that China assertive authoritarianism bothered its neighbours, that even China was exasperated by the North Korean regime, that Rudd was a

Comments

[catsidhe]

Originally, Wikileaks was anonymous. The focus was on the information.

Then people started popping up across the internet, claiming to be the spokesperson for Wikileaks. This could not be allowed to stand, so Assange stepped forward and put his face up as the face of Wikileaks.

What he also, incidentally, did was to provide a figurehead for the inevitable enemies to take aim at, while everyone else at Wikileaks went on with their jobs.

All the attention is on Assange, very little at all on Kristinn Rafnsson. Or anyone else behind the curtain. Co-incidence? maybe.

But as well, there are the split-off Wikileaks. That cat's out of the bag, and even if Wikileaks itself goes down permanently (a difficult task in its own right), that leaves lessons for the next generation of leakers.

I know a guy who went to school with Assange: his opinion is that Julian is insufferably arrogant, and his arrogance is only matched by his intelligence. You might not like him: strike that, you probably won't like him, but don't ever mistake that for thinking that he's wrong, or stupid.

[quatrefoil]

No argument there - most of the geeks with delusions of grandeur I know are neither wrong nor stupid, but they do frequently have problems with interpersonal relationships, and sometimes personal hygiene. I actually think Assange has that combination of recklessness and genius that would probably make him quite attractive if I were fifteen years younger and hadn't learned my lessons.