Hey, great title by the way. The Watchmen is about a group of vigilantes, essentially individualists or ethical anarchists, who take up the mantle of judgement upon themselves; however, that in no way makes their actions right in any sense outside of their own conscious. They then transform into a group that mandates their ethics upon everyone through force and secrecy, exemplified by the character of Doctor Manhattan and marked by the quote describing him, "God exists, and he is an American".
This dichotomy between the early super heroes and the next generation heroes parallels the opposition of Assange and any goverment in general. Who is Assange to judge and / or label corporations or individuals? He is an individual making an ethical judgement of others. What would the alternative be? To let others make our ethical decisions for us. That's precisely the role that many governments and corporations play when obfuscating information; they are qualified to evaluate the truth, and we are not, thus we are surrendering our ability to practice our ethics by judging our elected representatives.
The question "Who watches the Watchmen" is not simple to answer; you're suggesting Assange is the one whose power is unchecked, but the information he is revealing is in itself a direct oversight of an unchecked power. So, the question is really, who oversees him? Well, you do.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, great title by the way. The Watchmen is about a group of vigilantes, essentially individualists or ethical anarchists, who take up the mantle of judgement upon themselves; however, that in no way makes their actions right in any sense outside of their own conscious. They then transform into a group that mandates their ethics upon everyone through force and secrecy, exemplified by the character of Doctor Manhattan and marked by the quote describing him, "God exists, and he is an American". This dichotomy between the early super heroes and the next generation heroes parallels the opposition of Assange and any goverment in general. Who is Assange to judge and / or label corporations or individuals? He is an individual making an ethical judgement of others. What would the alternative be? To let others make our ethical decisions for us. That's precisely the role that many governments and corporations play when obfuscating information; they are qualified to evaluate the truth, and we are not, thus we are surrendering our ability to practice our ethics by judging our elected representatives. The question "Who watches the Watchmen" is not simple to answer; you're suggesting Assange is the one whose power is unchecked, but the information he is revealing is in itself a direct oversight of an unchecked power. So, the question is really, who oversees him? Well, you do.