I previously had my suspicions about Wikileaks. I still do have some reservations about the actual purpose of the head of Wikileaks, but my reservations about Wikileaks have mostly been turned around over the last twelve months.
You see, over the last year I’ve been thinking more and more about what’s wrong with politics, and in particular, democracy. In its noblest form, democracy should be about elected officials leading the way, pushing society gently but firmly forward in terms of rights, moral attitude and humanitarianism.
But politics has become sullied by the lowest common denominator – best summarised as 30 second news sound bites. All too frequently, politicians are in a race to the finish, and societal evolution be damned. The most obvious facts are ignored to appease a few vocal minority groups who happen to live in marginal electorates.
You know why they live in marginal electorates? Because of the 30 second news sound bite. It’s because they’re less educated, or because they’re less tolerant, and likely they’re struggling too, and so they’re waiting for that sound grab that comes from a politician saying that they’ll “stop the boats” or “stop the pink wave” or whatever nonsense might promise a quick solution to a problem that needs complex analysis and humanitarian responses. But too many politicians in a democracy will say whatever needs to be said in order to get an extra vote. Democracy hangs by a razors edge in those electorates, and whichever way it falls, it isn’t pretty. The United States is showing us graphically, daily, the consequences of bigots taking over.
Coming back to Wikileaks, I’d suggest it’s a natural consequence of:
(a) The evolving internet;
(b) An information-rich society;
(c) A connected class that demands full transparency.
All three of these vectors create the “perfect storm” for existing governments (particularly democracies).
Centuries ago, Thomas Hobbes wrote Leviathan, which outlined the notion of a “social contract” – the implicit contract undertaken between a citizen and government on birth. Such “contracts” form the basis of constitutions, bills of rights, etc.
Human history is a continuous example of people developing ways to store and disseminate information faster and more efficiently. We moved from body language and inarticulate grunts to a spoken language, introduced art for the keeping of historical stories, introduced the written language, the printed book, the computer, the network, and then the internet. Information – the ability to retain, share and learn from it, generation after generation, has been the single most important driving factor in human development.
Just like idiots who insist that evolution has stopped, anyone who thinks that information has reached its pinnacle in terms of evolving how society works is at best utterly misguided.
So what does this have to do with Wikileaks? Absolutely everything.
I’m definitely a member of what I referred to as the “connected class”; if you believe we live in a class-less society, you’re really confused. Every Western country in particular is divided into classes based on income strata, if nothing else.
And look where that’s getting us.
I’m not advocating throwing away money, but it’s clear that classes decided purely on income aren’t exactly helping. The connected class is going to adjust that traditional income strata class structure. And by “adjust” I mean “significantly disrupt”.
I’m – and others like me – in Generation X are only the first wave of the connected class. It’s a global class, unhindered by borders, timezones and (increasingly) language where information is naturally shared and people stay in contact with one another without even thinking about it. It’s the class of people who check email or twitter when they go to the loo at 3 in the morning, who watch TV while they surf the net, who blog or participate in forums, who have friends, real friends on Facebook they’ve never physically met. It’s the people who see themselves belonging to a global network that is so much bigger than where they live or who they physically associate with.
The second wave of the connected class is starting to find its voice. Generation Y. Gen-X’ers like myself started growing up without all this information, we’re still hindered by a sense of awe at times. Gen-Y’ers are a whole different beast. For them, information and connectivity has been nigh on omnipresent during their development, and where it hasn’t been for them, it certainly will be for Generation Z.
And the connected class are already demanding a better government process. More transparency, we cry! More accountability, we cry! Less censorship, we demand.
The only thing slowing down the connected class now is the corruption of the “manifesto” by pirates, crackers and people with no respect for truly valid intellectual property. I’m not by any means insisting that all forms of intellectual property (and/or patents) are valid, but it certainly shouldn’t be open slather. That is, there’s a confusion currently between two radically different “war-cries”:
- “information should be free”
- “information frees”
The real manifesto of the connected class should be the latter, not the former. It is not the case that all information should be “free”. In an information-rich society, people who work hard to develop new information should be compensated in some form for that work. But it should be a truth, universally acknowledged, that information frees (the mind).
With freedom, information brings a change to how government has worked over the centuries. The connected class is no longer prepared to blindly accept a government that insists “there are some things you shouldn’t know”. I’m not declaring open season on the most vile pornography you can think of; that’s what some people think I’m suggesting when I argue against internet censorship – but it’s no longer up to governments to secretly determine what we can and cannot see. Governments are made of people, who are corruptible. Government appointed committees and bodies are made up of people, who are corruptible. Only all the people remain out of the reach of corporate and “special interest” taint. That’s why, for what it’s worth, I think an internet democracy is a natural consequence of an internet/connected society, too. That’s how you stop bogans ruling governments, and why we’re starting to see an increasing role in democracies such as Australia of the independents.
An internet/connected class is about society reaching an ethically founded self-regulation. That means individuals having a voice, and speaking out against secrets and back room deals, rejecting illegal or unfounded reasons for government sponsored violence.
Those who argue that a loss of privacy is inevitable use the illegitimate argument that “if you’re not doing anything wrong it shouldn’t matter if people know what you’re doing”. I believe it’s equally invalid to say “if governments weren’t doing anything wrong, it wouldn’t matter if people know what they’re doing”. You can’t make progress on the basis of doubly-negative arguments. The real, legitimate argument is that the the connected class is finding its voice, and saying, without equivocation, without reluctance, without hesitation and with absolute moral certainty the following three things:
- We demand a greater and ongoing say in how our governments and society works;
- We demand full accountability of government;
- We demand full transparency of government.
Many governments are struggling with the implications of sites like Wikileaks. What they don’t yet realise (or if they have, they’re too afraid to admit it) is the real implication: this is Wikileaks v1.0. Just wait until Generation Y takes over, and we have Wikileaks 2.0. Then just wait until Generation Z takes over, and we have Wikileaks 3.0.
Plato, in the Republic, discusses society lead by “Philosopher Kings”. Personally I think that’s potentially as dangerous as the current models we have for government. But what we’re seeing, in crystal clarity, is the start of the “Philosopher Arbiters” – the connected class is
