Assange and Zuckerberg:
Transforming our world
Sol, Portugal
WikiLeaks and
Facebook: What Came Before Will Soon Be Rubble
"Democracies can no longer address the problems created by the combined effect of globalization and the emergence of the immaterial. We confront new freedoms and crimes for which there is neither legislation nor police oversight; nor is there social or political legitimacy for trying to combat or even control them."
By António Pedro Vasconcelos
Translated By Brandi Miller
December 20, 2010
Portugal - Sol - Original Article
(Portuguese)
This week, millions of youth
around the world unleashed a cyber-attack against companies that refused to support
the activities of WikiLeaks. It's easy to imagine that many of these young
people are also regular users of Facebook, the social network created by Mark
Zuckerberg. He's the Harvard student that at 23 years of age, with three colleagues
on a fall evening in 2003, launched a social network for university students. Six
years later, Facebook has become the biggest phenomenon on the Internet with
500 million members, which has made him the youngest billionaire in history.
David Fincher, a penetrating director
of thrillers like Se7en
and Zodiac, and the bold
and brilliant cult movie, Fight
Club, decided to recreate the story of Zuckerberg. He directs an efficient film that would have been able to tell a beautiful Shakespearian story of solitude and shyness,
which turns into one of greed and betrayal, if Fincher was Orson Welles or Nicholas Ray.
The creator of WikiLeaks is
Julian Assange, who supplied five newspapers of global prestige with
confidential or even secret documents, which reveal practices by governments around the world considered criminal and
detrimental to the freedom and rights of citizens.
Both Zuckerberg and Assange are now, for many, heroes of the early 21st century.
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If Facebook is for making
friends, WikiLeaks seems geared for making enemies. What they have in common is
that both are initiatives of young cybernauts who have revolutionized our way
of relating and informing one another. We, who no longer have the time to drink
a coffee with a friend, are now making new friends every day around the world.
WikiLeaks, on the other hand, is a new form of journalism that aims to
scrutinize the activities of governments. Without regulation or control,
Assange's initiative completely shuffles the data that, up to now, our
democracies have lived with, revealing their frailties completely.
The Internet is a "soft"
revolution, but it will have the same effect on our lives that the industrial
revolution had in the 19th century: a radical mutation from the model of Western
society built since the end of the last war [WWII]. Democracies will no longer
be able to address the problems created by the combined effect of globalization and the
emergence of the immaterial. We confront new freedoms and crimes for which
there is neither legislation nor police oversight; nor is there social or
political legitimacy for trying to combat or even control them.
The raw and simple truth is
that states no longer keep us secure or ensure peace, freedom and justice. The brave
new world is here again. Do not dare to imagine what it will be; but those who think
it is possible to have a slow, peaceful transition from one world to another will
be sorely disappointed. As Marx taught us, history is a succession of painful births
- and civilizations are invariably built on the rubble of those that came
before.
apvasconcelos@gmail.com
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Le Monde, France:
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El Mundo, Spain:
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El Heraldo, Honduras:
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If West Persecutes Assange, it Will What it Deserves
Correio da Manhã, Portugal:
WikiLeaks: A 'Catastrophe' for Cyber-Dependent States
Romania Libera:
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Le Figaro, France:
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News, Switzerland:
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Libération, France:
Who Rules? Hackers, the Press and Our Leaders - in that Order
Tal Cual, Venezuela:
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Berliner Zeitung, Germany:
Assault on Assange Betrays U.S. Founding Principles
El Universal, Mexico:
WikiLeaks Revelations a Devastating Shock to Mexico
L'Orient Le Jour, Lebanon:
WikiLeaks Makes 'Mockery' of 'U.S. Colossus'
Jornal de Negócios, Portugal:
More than We
Wanted to Know. Or Maybe Not!
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The WikiLeaks Disclosures: A Journalist's Ambivalence
Global Times, China:
WikiLeaks Poses Greater Risk to West's 'Enemies'
FAZ, Germany:
Ahmadinejad's Chief-of-Staff Calls WikiLeaks Cables 'Lies'
Al-Riyadh, Saudi Arabia:
Saudis Ask: Who Benefitted from WikiLeaks Disclosure?
Guardian, U.K.:
Cables Portray Saudi Arabia as a Cash Machine for Terrorists
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Cables Expose
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El País, Spain:
Thanks to WikiLeaks' Disclosure, Classical Diplomacy is Dead
Guardian, U.K.:
Saudi Arabia
Urges U.S. Attack on Iran
Hurriyet, Turkey:
Erdogan Needs 'Anger Management' Over U.S. Cables
Saudi Gazette, Saudi Arabia:
WikiLeaks Reveals 'Feeling, Flawed' Human Beings
Frontier Post, Pakistan:
WikiLeaks Reveals 'America's Dark Face' to the World
The Nation:
WikiLeaks' Release: An Invaluable Exposure of American Hypocrisy
Buenos Aires Herald, Argentina:
Without Hypocrisy,
Global Ties
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Kayhan, Iran:
WikiLeaks Release a 'U.S. Plot to Sow Discord'
El Universal, Mexico:
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Toronto Star, Canada:
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Guardian, U.K.:
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Guardian, U.K.:
Leaked Cables Reveal China is
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Hurriyet, Turkey:
American Cables Prove Turkish
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The Nation, Pakistan:
WikiLeaks: An Invaluable Exposure of American Hypocrisy
Kayhan, Iran:
WikiLeaks Revelations a 'U.S. Intelligence Operation': Ahmadinejad
Novosti, Russia:
'Russia Will be Guided by
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Guardian, U.K.:
Job of Media Is Not
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from Embarrassment
