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WikiLeaks: Observing The Effects II
The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive “secrecy tax”) and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulting in decreased ability to hold onto power as the environment demands adaption.
Julian Assange: The non linear effects of leaks on unjust systems of governance, Dec 31, 2006 (pdf) via
The U.S. Air Force just cyber-defeated itself by falling into the trap andby decreasing the information available for its operators:
The Air Force is blocking computer access to The New York Times and other media sites that published sensitive diplomatic documents released by the Internet site WikiLeaks, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
…
Tones said the New York Times is the only major U.S. newspaper included in the ban. Others include Der Spiegel in Germany, the Guardian in Britain and Le Monde in France.
Tones said that the 24th Air Force routinely blocks network access to websites that host inappropriate material, including classified information such as that released by WikiLeaks. Any computer on the Air Force network is now unable to link to the sites.
Without access to major world media the Air Force will be unable to assess the political implication of its operations. Air Force actors in contact with allies as well as adversaries will now have less knowledge then their contacts. This will lead to misjudgments. It also allows foreign actors to manipulate Air Force personal.
Fine with me. Such utter silliness requires punishment.
lizard please don’t mistake ‘keeping alive the flame’ with giving up. I fully intend to keep on agitating about those things around me which I consider to be wrong/unjust, but I also intend to be practical and consider the longer arc of history, because living off the sustenance of change being “just around the corner”, has a major problem. If that change doesn’t come, it eventually becomes difficult to sustain the energy required to agitate. Many such people do surrender.
The cost of social engineering may seem minimal to you Uncle, and there was a time when I agreed. For example when my job was working with people who, for one reason or another, didn’t have any paid employment, I firmly believed that the elites recognised that paying out some sort of minimal income support to people without an income would be the least expensive way of dealing with those people. I still believe that to be true, though the elites do not.
Otherwise a sizeable chunk of those in need, will help themselves and then society incurs the cost; eg every dollar a thief may get for his/her work costs approx 8 dollars. Hot items sell for substantially less than they are ‘worth’ and considerable collateral damage occurs during a theft/burlary.
That is no longer the case (that the elites consider the cost affordable) – as you have seen in amerika and now europe, the welfare system is being dismantled.
The rich have decided that most of the cost of crimes committed by the poor are actually born by the slightly less poor, & so are now agitating to get rid of welfare payments entirely.
National indebtedness is used as the excuse but of course that is only a facade.
For example:
Somewhere in the swathe of NZ cables is one highly critical of the last Prime Minister Helen Clark. It damns with faint praise when it criticises Helen for “having a Presbyterian outlook borne of a frugal upbringing, which has led her to believe that the budget should always be balanced”.
During the entire term of the Clark Labour government (10 years) the govt always ran a surplus. That became an issue during the last election with the conservattives insisting NZers were being ripped off and should get a tax cut.
The mugs fell for it, and elected Key & co whereupon huge tax cuts were given to the rich; and tiny, (average $6 per week) given to ordinary citizens.
The government then began borrowing at 240 million a week to fund the cuts. There were also increases in consumption tax (those always hit the lower income earners worse) and cuts in education, health and welfare expenditure. Some of us shouted “OI! yer being sucked in here” &were ignored & now we get this from the tory treasurer
The amount the Government has to borrow each week has jumped from $250 million a week to $300 million a week, to cover the blowout in the cash deficit to $15.6 billion.
He goes on to make excuses about earthquakes, that it will end soon and such but that will change too just as the undertaking that the $240 mill a week didn’t matter, which they made at the time of the cuts has changed.
By this time next year, NZ’s indebtedness will be used as an excuse to slash and burn exactly as it has been used in Greece, Ireland, England & France. The reality – that it was calculated indebtedness which could easily have been avoided, will be ignored.
For me this has meant a major change in my life. I have mentioned before about having a child that is disabled. I bought the home where we are currently living, precisely because I wanted to make sure my son would always have somewhere to live, away from urban chaos, so that whatever happened in the future, he would have a domicile.
Of course I have made it plain to my daughter that the house is for her too, should she need it. She is out there in the world slogging at the books, hoping to get a decent degree, so in her words “She doesn’t have to rely on any bloke, including her father, for any thing”.
The home plan was predicated on my son always having some sort of income even if there were times when his disability prevented him from getting paid employment.
Of course I hope to leave this joint with more than a pile of bills for my kids, but I had always considered our society to be one where people looked after each other should “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,
Gang aft agley,”
This current mob of assholes have been having a “Welfare Review” which annoys me considerably not least because we never used to call our society’s insistence that no member be destitute “welfare”. . . . until quite recently. Like liberal and charity, the definition of the term ‘welfare’ has been turned around to invoke the negative concepts which once only the amerikan culture laid upon it.
The review has recommended that citizens only be able to access income support for 30 months of their entire working life.
I have always done whatever needed to be done to keep body and soul and family together, without being parasitical or mercenary, but now I find I cannot sacrifice my sons’ future to his father’s principles and have embarked on a late life foray into capitalism.
I dunno how this is going to go, as previous attempts (a very long time ago) foundered on a refusal to be completely 100% prepared to do anything to get going and stay afloat.
My observations over the years have led me to believe that the early stages of any capitalist enterprise do require a certain, shall we say; ‘callous indifference to the fortunes of some other citizens’.
And before anyone says it. Yes I do know by signing up to capitalism, even this late in my life, I am in a sense doing exactly what those who conceived this strategy want me to do.
I am quite prepared to sacrifice myself on my ideals, and have done so in the past, but I defy most people to do the same when it is their child whose life is being sacrificed for their principles.
Somehow I have to accumulate enough in the next 10 years to support the young fella for the next 50 years.
I am not particularly optimistic about my success, but I know I must try, and also, that confidence will play a major role in any success.
Hopefully I will find some interesting paradoxes during this episode of ‘Did, the entrepreneur’. Ones that can amuse fellow travellers. Goodness knows I have found any number of ironies already, altho most are too minor to provide more than brief amusement.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Dec 19 2010 3:04 utc | 41
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