I’m not sure if you’ve been following WikiLeaks and all of the hubbub that’s surrounding the leaked confidential documents but it honestly makes me feel ill on both sides of the fence.
Half of me wishes I had never seen some of the leaked video footage of innocent murders and the other half of me is glad that the truth is now freely available to the public who deserves to know.
Now, of course, there’s pressure from the government to all organizations that are digitally housing this information, including DNS services and hosting providers.
It’s one big gigantic mess.
Of course, this is of great interest to me as it relates directly in the sphere of online information and the elements of “freedom” that we speak of so often.
Love to hear your thoughts, if you have any.
Daniel Berman says
I don’t think its possible to support the stealing and release of documents, either from a moral standpoint as a Christian or from an operational standpoint of running the State Department or our national security apparatus. That said I can’t escape the feeling that in a number of cases, one story has been portrayed by the government and media while the opposite or atleast a different situation has been brewing in many cases.
If this is true, why must it be true? Why must the public be misled or allowed to believe what they want through effectively deliberate doublespeak? The Israel-Palestinian peace process is an excellent example. Much has been talked about that being the primary obstacle to peace in the Mid-East. Now we find out that the leaders in the Mideast, all concur that they have been worried more about Iran than the Israel-Palestinian issue. Something is not computing here.
Stephen Bateman says
I’m concerned that American transparency is out of hand, or getting there.
But I certainly don’t want Julian Assange to be deciding who gets to see what.
BenJPickett says
While I don’t personally share the fact that the majority of the information on this site should be available to the general public, I do recognize that he is gaining this information without hacking or breaking into the systems that originally contained it. It is all stuff that has been posted, lost, leaked, or given to someone else prior to WikiLeaks obtaining it.
My standpoint is that our government need to stop pointing fingers and start fixing their process loopholes that have lead to this information being so readily available. The people need to stop yelling about the leaked information and decide if this is stuff that they want available or if this is stuff that they shouldn’t know. I feel, as an American, there are certain things we shouldn’t know about to protect our freedoms, liberties and our way of life in America; there is however lots out there that should be available to us that isn’t.
WikiLeaks, just like everything else can be used for good and bad. There is far too little discretion used on all sides with the availability of stuff on this site.
reverent1 says
So those in government positions have been abusing the power, spying, detaining, torturing and just blatantly stripping freedom away from it’s populace but now when they get spied on it is wrong (Christianly)… It’s sad to see so many dooped by a system rotten to the core and you best read your bible as speaking out against evil is not new nor is it bad, in fact it is only deemed bad by those who are doing the evil.
It’s sad that the spotlight is put on Assange as if wikileaks is a one man show, what’s worse is he’s not American but his spotlight on the evil is deemed bad for the country. You are more likely to be killed in a car wreck than by a “terrorist”, I agree double speak on such a massive scale for most it’s too scary to even go down that road…. Did you know the british deemed those who founded this country as terrorist ? Put yourself back in those days wouldn’t it be bad to throw tea into the harbor ? That’s not a very Christian thing or is it ? Who do you side with ?
Standing up against tyrants is bad as we all know what happens when you dare try it. May God open the eyes of the sleeping church and if not lead us then at least support an effort against an evil-tyrannical government. Until the let them be exposed for what they are and maybe those honest folks that are in government (far & few they may be) begin the process of healing by re-establishing the rule of law that used to govern this nation: The Constitution with God at the helm and no that’s not a theocracy for the random pagan or whomever may troll this website…
Now for all of that I must worry about being put on a list by a fusion center… Help me Lord God!