The meaning of Wikileaks
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"All collisions in history have their origin, according to our view, in the contradiction between the productive forces and the form of intercourse." Karl Marx the German Ideology 1845
In the history of human social relations there are points of fundamental transformation. The domination of global news by revelations from Wikileaks is such a transformation. It will forever change the balance of political power in favor of the majority and against the minority who, for millennia, have controlled information flows.
Control of information meant that "knowledge is power" and that the majority could be manipulated. Frederick the Great said 'he who knows all the plans of his enemies need never fight another war'.
For more than a decade, the promise that the Internet would undermine and weaken the ideological hold of the ruling classes over society, and shatter existing power relations, remained the preserve of marginal technocratic utopians.
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A wanted page for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen on the Interpol Internet website taken Dec 7, 2010. [China Daily/Agencies] |
In the Wikileaks case, perhaps only a single insider was responsible for collecting and making public an ocean of secret documents and transmissions relating to the global activities of United States military and diplomatic missions. But this act may shatter forever the mystical spell that the very words 'diplomacy' and 'government' cast for centuries.
This is not just about US power; it is also about the mass media on a global scale. Most of the world's private and state news media are happy to use insiders to penetrate the private lives of celebrities, to expose their intimate secrets for public amusement and commercial gain. But they barely touch on the massive secrets surrounding the exercise of state, military and corporate power.
