Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Without Our Consent
In his recent profile of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, The New Yorker‘s Raffi Khatchadourian lauds Assange’s exposing injustice, but suggests his efforts should be limited to fighting authoritarian regimes, not legitimate democratic states, whose secrets, says Khatchadourian, are justified by the consent of the governed. Of course, all states are authoritarian, while some are totalitarian. All of them lie, cheat, and steal without our consent—something that apparently escaped Khatchadourian.
