I was a WikiLeaks supporter. To some extent, I still am. I am a bit less enthusiastic after opsec failures and ego explosions started sinking WikiLeaks and endangering those involved. That said, WikiLeaks did pretty well. It was a very good spark to the flame of revolution and awakening. It simply had some flaws and failed to adapt or fix itself.
Early on in the formation of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange sent the following email to the others working on the project.
“Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence and thereby eventually lose all ability to defend ourselves and those we love. In a modern economy it is impossible to seal oneself off from injustice.
If we have brains or courage, then we are blessed and called on not to frit these qualities away, standing agape at the ideas of others, winning pissing contests, improving the efficiencies of the neocorporate state, or immersing ourselves in obscuranta, but rather to prove the vigor of our talents against the strongest opponents of love we can find.
If we can only live once, then let it be a daring adventure that draws on all our powers. Let it be with similar types whos hearts and heads we may be proud of. Let our grandchildren delight to find the start of our stories in their ears but the endings all around in their wandering eyes. The whole universe or the structure that perceives it is a worthy opponent, but try as I may I can not escape the sound of suffering.
Perhaps as an old man I will take great comfort in pottering around in a lab and gently talking to students in the summer evening and will accept suffering with insouciance. But not now; men in their prime, if they have convictions are tasked to act on them.”
I agree with everything Assange said in this email. The part about life being a daring adventure is where I get the name of this blog. I truly want to live my life as a daring adventure. At first, I thought that getting a research position in a field that fascinated me would be good enough. I could improve the world with science. I got a huge head start on this. Now, I am restless. I have seen too much injustice to just stand by silently. I need to do something to help.
Join me on this daring adventure. Wield your passion and sense of justice as tools to improve society. Together, we can fix our broken systems and change the world.