Today I read about Bradley Manning in the newspaper, how the most serious charge has been dropped (that of giving information to the enemy) but that he still goes for min 20 years in prison.
And it struck me, that this happens at the same time as we in the West (read Sweden, this is me assuming that we belong to a sort of ideological block incl Western Europe and US) condemn how journalists and whistleblowers are imprisoned in Turkey, Syria, Ethiopia. We hold this information forth as a proof of lack of democracy. It is uncivilized, barbaric.
Manning, Assange, Snowden. Now the story is different, there are no moralistic condemnations from European governments here, noone stands up to take points in righteousness by claiming the release of these political prisoners. Obviously because noone wants to make enemies with the US (thats showing to be very prickly about these issues). Fair enough, this is just part of the worlds general shittyness. What is sickening is not the general shittyness of the Western governments along with it many others, but the denial about it.
Manning, Assange, Snowden are whistleblowers and have done us a great service in standing up for values that the West (admittedly; mostly in theory) are built on. This is freedom of speech; the freedom to speak up when you see wrongdoings, the freedom to expose your own government when it is not living up to its own principles. This freedom and consequential transparency is what democracy and mutual trust between government and citizen is built on. But its not a freedom if you will be sentenced to 20-136 years in prison for exercising your right. Or if, as in case Assange and Snowden, you have to flee your country, flee globally, to not disappear into some juridical greyzone á la Guantanamo never to return. And the global silence in this case (as in opposition to Turkey, Syria, Ethiopia) is like the dull muted pressure when you're in an airplane with a cold. You look down on the world and you feel distanciated.
People aren't comfortable with it though, we sort of think these guys are heroes, we're just not going to take the fight.
And the fight that we don't take is the fight on one hand for the freedom of speech and transparency of government, and the other of right to privacy from government and corporate scanning/ surveillance. The balance is shifting, from protecting the civilian against a potentially aggressive government, it is now a question of protecting the government against a potentially aggressive civil society.
Are there reasons for this, ie more terrorism now than before? I don't know, IRA, ETA RAF, Weatherman Group are all done with. Or is it just a twisted consequence of the political system, that in some degree leaves the citizen to fend for her- or himself in a world of unemployment and deconstructed wellfare institutions, of a distanciated threat - ie foreign rather than domestic terrorism. Or perhaps WW2 has gone from being contemporary history to history and we no longer build our societies on the learnings from that time.
In any case - what we actively choose is one thing. What we continue thinking because its easier, more comfortable, more pleasant, is another. To think that we stand for freedom, freedom of speech and non-corrupt government, to think that we are not only morally superior but culturally superior despite the facts that reveal the opposite, THIS is the problem.
How far will it go, what horrible and despicable things will need to happen, until denial becomes impossible?
What will happen then? Will we revert to a society where we fill these words (ie freedom, democracy etc) with real content instead of just using them as smokescreens, or will we just accept hypocrisy and take-what-you-want as the new world order?
As usual, nothing happens abruptly enough that you really register. It just slowly shifts and you never really know what or when the decisive moment happened.
Anyway - Thank you Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden for standing up for the rights that we are so quick to squander.
13-07-31
Stockholm
