The question is whether Julian Assange is a worthy candidate. There are reasons to question or pour scorn upon his actions:
1. Assange has most certainly advanced the cause of accountability through 'unregulated' disclosure
2. Assange has also exposed people to harmful impacts to serve his collectivist goals
Julian Assange is not an intellectual. He is motivated by ideals to be sure, and until he releases his book, then we will not know the exact nature of his motives. The problem though, it looks pretty bad.
The good news is that Julian is a single individual, not a collective state. The extent to which he is able to hurt others is a little more limited, particularly since the US government will eventually destroy him to discourage anyone from following in his foot steps. Rest assured there are plenty of anti-intellectual 'anarchists' around the world willing to fill his shoes. Hopefully, we will one day find find an idealist who does possess integrity.
So what is wrong with Julian Assange?
The answer is simple. He cares little whether his disclosure exposes government corruption or ineptitude, or whether he exposes a wealthy tax evader. Should he care? Well, from his collectivist perspective, he thinks not. But the reality is that for 'free thinking' Libertarians, those wealthy people, to the extent that they are not corrupt, and hiding wealth they earnt, they ought not to be exposed to the derision of parasitic voters who want their share.
He makes no distinction between tax evaders with objective principles and those corrupt officials who also hide money in those bank accounts. Why? Because he is a collectivist with indulgence thoughts. He is a reactionary...not a deep thinker. He has effectively persecuted some good people, along with corrupt officials. If a person points a gun at you, there is no moral requirement for you to 'honestly' tell them where your money or children are. For the same reason, wealthy people are entitled to hide their money if they can, and anyone who exposes them is not a libertarian, but a fool!
Worse is his folly, that he does not even care to offer a justification for his actions. Accountability is good! But whose moral sanction is he seeking? He is sanctioning the moral code that resulted in those institutions of concealing and corruption developing.
Anyway, you can vent your opinion at Facebook, or you can nominate him for Australian of the Year if you still like him. I personally think he has been a mix of good and bad, and hope he is a precursor to a more intellectual figure.
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Author
Andrew Sheldon
