printNEW COLUMN: It suddenly struck me: Most men are cowards. How many men have the courage and character to step up and honor the highest principles or the best of humanity when they encounter these? Too few. Most live defensively or ignorantly, betraying the good for the bad. That’s why men like Assange are so impressive and important and true. They show us the way. While most men live in-thrall to miserable entities or people and the bonds they impose; Assange has shown us the right way to live within our own orbits; dangerously, if you must, never on your knees; bravely seeking that which is the best and the finest—be they principles or people.
Julian Assange has given his life in the cause of exposing global state and corporate corruption and the collusion betwixt. He should be thanked for his service, for Assange did not enlist to do The State’s bidding in futile, wicked wars in faraway lands. Rather, he went-up against the Administrative, Warfare, Surveillance State for The People.
Therefore, all state agents—media-military-congressional complex; local and global—want this, the greatest libertarian alive (if barely) to disappear. Never mind that First-Amendment jurisprudence is clear-cut with respect to the guerrilla journalism of WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks operators have committed no crime in publishing what is undeniably true, newsworthy information, with probative value. Besides, why has America any jurisdiction over a foreign entity (WikiLeaks) and a foreign national (Julian Assange)?
Well, America has jurisdiction over Assange because it has simply asserted it based on trumped-up charges equating his journalism with espionage. Which is why Assange now fears being “Epsteined.”
THE NEW COLUMN is “Extradited! Why Assange Fears Being ‘Epsteined’”. Read it on WND.COM, Townhall.com and the Unz Review.
UPDATE (12/24): An honest man asks on Twitter how to become courageous. Am I an authority? No! I just try my best, in writing—having never betrayed my first principles for popularity or pelf—and in living, in charity and in loving and helping those who see me.
I have, however, known people who never step up and are mired in cowardice, wasting their considerable mentation and manhood on being frightened in the quest for equilibrium (personally and politically); or gulling themselves into believing that when they serve the wrong people and principles—they are ever-so good. Contempt is what they deserve. When encountering good people, fighting the good fight, doing good work—every person can honor that and help, rather than hinder.
My humble reply to Sean: “Within our orbits we can all try to stand up for the principles and people that matter and make a difference and need our energies most. So, I thank YOU for joining me here.”
Anything I can do about it, me a small plebian peasant prole?
— Sean Stavro Blofeld (@SeanForLiberty) December 24, 2021
* The “man” noun here is used in the traditional sense, as mankind. I include myself, a woman, as part of mankind. Your fucking sexual or gender orientation matters not. Quit the pronoun crap. That is another first principle: never dignify nonsense, including linguistic bafflegab. I write and think in English. So should you.
These are bracing words, Mrs. Mercer, even if one does not greet them happily. One is overwhelmed to the point of fatalism by the apparent inevitability of Assange’s extradition after all these years. At least history will be obliged to treat him more honorably than our current-day stenographers for power.
To your broader point: I would like to think that my heuristic has been consistent, that I have always obeyed my internal code of ethics—but more likely I have had the luxury never to be seriously tested in my commitments at this young stage if life. And my professional habitus (academia) involves a litany of infinitesimal compromises and ritual humiliations in the face of a vast, impersonal bureaucracy. It is no coincidence that the universities have produced an entire class of supine and opportunistic men, the fact of which makes me increasingly disinclined to continue in academia, lest I morph imperceptibly into one of them…
Why do you suppose that most men today have abdicated their honour? I would tentatively argue that, in direct proportion as the intermediary functions of society have been absorbed upward into the ever-expanding “therapeutic-administrative” state, in tandem with the diffusion of organic communities into global ones, modern society has divested men of any tangible responsibilities or means of self-sufficiency; while at the same the structural incentives for trading in one’s principles have only increased as men become more dependent on the system for material and social capital. It’s a vicious cycle downwards into abject submission.
But this hardly exhausts the scope of the problem. I would be very curious for your fuller thoughts.
Have a very Merry Christmas, with the hope of better things to come in the New Year!
Yes, you make good points, Nicholas. I thought you were an old soul just from your writing here, content and style. It transpires that you are a young man. It’s not a fun time to be young, traditional, principled, deep-thinking. There is a raw honesty in you—especially in your ability to be vulnerable, to share vulnerabilities. This makes you an honorable, strong young man. I suspect you will always find your way; uphold, honor and attach yourself to the right principles and the right people. I don’t see you turning your back on that which is good and noble. I, moreover, completely accept the validity of the constraints you highlight as to why we compromise with forces that beat us down. I once advised young men in high-tech that if one is especially bright, and does not need to become a Microsoft, Facebook, Apple drone — don’t. If you stay within these cesspools—you might have an interesting professional life, as you will play with the latest, fanciest, most exciting gadgets and toys—but they will take your mind, your manhood, and before you know you it, you will regard The Firm as your Family; your prime identity. The university, your particular habitat, is easier to hate and to resist. It will be interesting hearing more.
Merry Christmas and thanks for your generous, honest, insightful contribution to these pixelated pages of mine.