I recently saw two pieces of media work on Julian Assange, one was an interview conducted by an Indian media channel and the other was a documentary. The manner in which Assange and his team think fascinates me. In a media dominated democratic society how revolutionary a thinker you must be to recognise that the entire media is nothing but a mouth piece of secretive governments around the world who have agendas that they don’t want to communicate to their own voters, Assange and his friends believed in this.
While Assange is on a run and is having trouble keeping him both safe for all major governments and out of jail, and, WikiLeaks has almost split with OpenLeaks being established by former Assange associates it would be interesting to see what happens to the new brand of investigative journalism that Assange and his team have developed. Is it contagious, yes of course everyone has the itch of doing something that has such an impact, but, is it possible to do this the way Assange has done it? Not sure! It takes a lot of guts and a high risk appetite.
No shortage of Courage in the middle-east though and it is contagious as well, or at least seems that way. The recent successful revolt in Egypt which contagiously spread to Libya, Yemen and Bahrain are representative of how oppressed people of a country can find the courage to say it’s enough! And discover that their compatriots also have found their voices. Yes! Courage is Contagious, one successful revolt leads to another, people start believing they can, they stiff up their spines and walk with their head up and say enough is enough! We want a change and if you don’t give it… we will snatch it!
Once you know your compatriots are there with you, Courage tends to stick with you longer. So when Colonel Gaddafi says he will fight until the last man, women or bullet, the rebels say bring it on… that’s not easy, not sane! But once you find common grounds to stand and enough courage to march for what you believe, I guess, the world is a much easier place to live in or die for. I salute this attitude! These people took to guns because they could not vote for what they wanted…
A word of caution, Courage is Contagious… but so is stupidity. The stock markets are a good example of how mass hysteria creates bubbles that destroys the life for thousands. History tell us, a mesmerising Hitler could induce enough courage that common Germans believed they could conquer the world just two decades after being brutally hit in the first world war. The consequences of the Second World War are well known. While the reasons for the world war might not be similar to the reasons for the on-going revolts in Libya, Yemen or Bahrain a civil war leads to similar results within a country.
A revolt needs a leader, someone who knows what is right, not just what is the need of time. A revolt without a real need will always lead to chaos and eventually greater trouble. There should always be a balance of power, and citizens of all countries should demand it struggle to achieve it. This might be via the Assange way or the Libyan way or the time tested democratic way of voting.
