Public Domain

War is peace,

slavery is freedom,

ignorance is bliss.

In ancient times, when most people hardly knew anything about the existence of other people, or the limits of our planetary confinement, or the space-time rules seemingly governing the movements of planets and stars, they considered most likely everything 'public domain'.

The capitalist concept of 'property' turned out as a successful meme, although with a very long incubation period. Humanity installed many systems to maintain injustices based on the meme of property, and only few to protect the public domain.

In a tribe, there's little space for private property. Still, everyone within a tribe owns something, which makes them unique and individual. 'To make something your own' seems like a common human desire, and this includes skills and knowledge as well as material goods.

Pre-civilised societies steal the resources they need, unaware of the limited space our planet offers. Trading resources and knowledge creates a win-win situation for the involved societies, and unlike the violent option of war, and shares the benefits of the accompanying technological progress. Our resources might be limited, but our inventiveness brought an increase in common wealth in many periods of history.

For a long time, we could only rely on our gut feeling to determine whether a war was truly just or just another commercial enterprise. From a humanitarian perspective in the 21st century, war has proven an irrational choice to improve the situation of the majority of people involved. No government acts in the interest of its people if it leads them into a bloody-thirsty money-making scheme like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and redirects tax-payers money into the greedy fingers of the military industrial complex.

War has shifted its meaning since George Orwell wrote the quote I began with. It became the Orwellian monster, an endless war against invisible enemies, brought to life by government propaganda. Like in 1984, everyone's life get influenced by the growing paranoia of governments about 'terrorists'. We don't identify the terrorists in suits on our TV screen spreading distrust and lies, and the spin becomes common knowledge, or rather COWDUNG (common wisdom of the dominating group).

The latest victim of the terror campaign originating mainly, but not exclusively, from the US is Julian Assange. He represents a project to bring transparency into politics. The Wikileaks publications confirm the lack of responsibility within the leadership of 'democratic' (and less democratic) governments many people have suspected to exist.

The discussion about Assange and Wikileaks polarises positions, like so many public interest topics. You can find the 'us vs them' meme many times, yet this time the frontline is drawn in new ways. It's governed against government, an act of self-defence against arbitrary, intransparent, uncontrollable and unaccountable government.

The people only want what they have been promised to pay for by their taxes: Civil servants that act in their interest. We have many so-called democracies on this planet, yet the people of this planet still unite behind the idea of transparent government. After 911, 77 and the Asian tsunami, civil liberty has become a global media talking point.

In a way, it seems a bit like David and Goliath - Julian Assange against the bureaucracies and politicians of some of the world's most 'powerful' nations. Yet Assange has only founded Wikileaks, and now puts his head on the block for it. Those calling him a 'hi-tech terrorist' unveil themselves as terrorists, fighting against democracy and freedom of expression.

Justice belongs to the global set of ethical standards, independent of the culture. Humans intuitively notice if a potential win-win situation turns into one where into one with unequal, unfair outcome. This prevented the introduction of abusive governing structures for some ten thousands of years, yet lately we entered again into a phase of human history where cruel governments dominate.

Democracy seems a uniting meme, yet the attempts to implement democracies were deeply flawed as of now. Elections neither prevented Hitler, Stalin nor Saddam. In times of global communication, travel, and trade the argument of 'national security' does not make any sense anymore. Governments have been the biggest threat to human life in the last few hundreds years, and Wikileaks confirms that this attitude prevails into contemporary times.

I'm just not paranoid enough to feel good that my taxes pay for death and torture in places I might never visit. I don't conceive government as a force of nature, but a man-made agreement how to live together on a larger scale. Governments shrouded in secrecy did (and still do) many objectionable things, and don't deserve the name 'democracy'.

In a country where parents have to subsidise the 'free' public education system, without free public health system, and growing poverty any cent spend on military adventures is wasted. In a democracy, information about how elected governments act and spend our money belongs to the public domain. Listen to the voices condemning Assange, and decide for yourself whether their interests really apply to you.

act assange common democracy domain global government history human interest knowledge life meme people period planet public resources seems situation times war wikileaks

created at TagCrowd.com