Re: <nettime> Florian, Assange and Deleuze

[Felix Stalder <felix@openflows.com>]

I'm saddened to see that the general media cycle works its way
through nettime as well. First, an issue/person is hyped and inflated
(a genius, the revolution, nothing will ever be the same), then
'unmasked' and destroyed (a fraud, a conspiracy, an old hat).

No matter what, WikiLeaks has established an important paradigm
for all to see, the same way Napster has established one. There
is no going back. You don't need to like Assange or Fanning for
acknowledging that having pulled this off is a major feat. This is not
a beauty contest.

Yes, of course, the information contained in all the leaked material,
particularly the diplomatic cables, is too vast, intricate and complex
to comprehend all at once, and so it's much easier to focus on the
messenger rather than the messages. But that's trivial and, really, it
doesn't matter. The information contained will now work its way into
the specialized discourses and be useful there for years to come.

I'm pretty sure in 2011 will see the first court case where one of    
these cables is cited as evidence. Perhaps in one concerning Shell    
in Nigeria? Perhaps in a corruption case in central Asia? Perhaps in  
a class action suit against the catholic church? These issues, of     
course, have been worked on before WikiLeaks, but to some of them,    
I'm convinced, the leaked documents have added major new resources to 
advance their long-term struggles.                                    

Just because the world doesn't come crashing down all at once, doesn't
mean nothing is going to happen.


Felix 









On Wednesday December 22 2010, Timothy Druckrey wrote:
> First - thanks to Florian for a realistic approach to the inflation of
> Assange to some kind of philosopher/activist.
> 
> Clearly, as his increasingly defensive and erratic interviews
> demonstrate, he has no deep thinking nor demonstrates any
> understanding of anything 

<...>

> Surely his sloppy philosophy isn't anywhere close to Deleuze and to
> attempt to form-fit this into a badly interpreted Deleuzian agenda is
> at best ridiculous and at least pointless.

<..>
 
> Assange is so conflicted (just listen to his interviews) that it works
> against his 'principles.' 

<...>





--- http://felix.openflows.com ----------------------- books out now:
*|Deep Search.The Politics of Search Beyond Google.Studienverlag 2009
*|Mediale Kunst/Media Arts Zurich.13 Positions.Scheidegger&Spiess2008
*|Manuel Castells and the Theory of the Network Society. Polity, 2006 
*|Open Cultures and the Nature of Networks. Ed. Futura/Revolver, 2005 








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