The most interesting aspect of the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London is that it did not seem guaranteed till the last moment. In the United States, the European Union and other countries, the public was confused, to put it mildly. Assange had simply done too much. As Leo Tolstoy once said, if you kill one person you go to prison, but if you kill hundreds of thousands you are decorated as a great military leader.
Assange's attorney Mark Stevens efforts to secure his client's surrender or a voluntary meeting with British police were in vain. After all, Assange has been on Interpol's most wanted list since November. Assange has been accused of rape and other sexual offenses, but this story will soon disappear because it is beside the point. The accusation stems from that same confusion I already mentioned.
It is extremely important to determine whether the man who disclosed the confidential correspondence of the U.S. State Department is guilty. This is not a sexual crime but a political crime, and political crimes target whole societies and states rather than individuals.
It is understandable that people from different countries are taking the leaks personally. In Libya, many people think that Libya is the main target of leaks. Iranians harbor similar suspicions. In Russia, there are a lot of people who want to believe the leaks are intended to target Russians alone.
But let's not forget that Assange and his associates dealt a blow not just to the United States but to Western civilization, as it's called. This is an internal problem in Western civilization. This is a product of Western civilization and ideology. Countries like Libya, Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan and even Iceland (Icelanders are very angry) are just the collateral damage.
The diagnosis is clear
Psychiatrists have noted off the record that Assange seems to be afflicted with autism. For a variety of reasons, a young man resists the outside world and does not want to accept it or integrate into it. Such people do not like society and the world in general. Sometimes they try to change the world to suit themselves, but often they remain isolated for the rest of their lives.
Autistic individuals are a real find for professional terrorists. They are adult children, immature people that are capable of causing great destruction with the best intentions. I'll refrain from naming political movements in Russia that include these kinds of people, but they exist and they cause damage.
The problem is that they are not just individuals. In recent years, there have been heated debates about what has happened to modern post-industrial society. Most often, the Internet and television are blamed for inhibiting young people's ability to think for themselves and learn - for preventing them from becoming adults. We are talking about millions of young people in a civilization that considers itself the most advanced in history. It is obvious that previous generations were more interested in reading and thinking. They were more cultured. In Russia, these debates are just unfolding, and Russians are misguided in thinking that this problem affects them only.
Republicans and Democrats again
Passing judgment on the Internet and educational systems is interesting, but let's return to the society Assange attacked. Let's talk about America, the main victim.
The debates over the rightness or wrongness of the leaks are unfolding in the United States along strictly partisan lines - Republicans versus Democrats. The much maligned Republicans and Tea Partiers have a definite opinion on the matter. They believe that people like Assange are no different from Osama bin Laden. Their sites should be shut down and the guilty, if they can't be arrested, should just be shot. The picture is more complicated in the Democratic camp, to which President Barrack Obama belongs.
The cosmopolitan and liberal side of the political spectrum includes people who are against state dominance, people who always see big business as neglectful of environmental issues, and people who would like to take responsibility for diplomacy away from the professionals and hand it over to non-governmental organizations. For some people from this human chaos, Assange is, if not a hero, than a tragic figure. And this leads to quite predictable consequences - and not only for Obama.
WikiLeaks hasn't caused a war
Everything that has happened is unexpected and very unpleasant and leads to some unwanted conclusions. But it's worth mentioning at least one of them. It is only by chance that Wikileaks has not caused a big war. The world is in the grips of an economic crisis. It is not clear "who's who" and nobody is interested in military conquest. But wars have broken out over less than this.
Today, the U.S. government is garnering more sympathy than anger around the world - after all, such a misfortune could befall any government. What could have happened yesterday? And what might happen tomorrow?
Tomorrow there is a chance that Assange will be locked up in a mental hospital and everything will be forgotten like a bad dream. Some might like to avoid analyzing the mental state of a society and the consequences of breaking the confidentiality of diplomatic messages - the principle that sometimes saves the world from mass murder.
But if this story is simply swept under the rug, it could be very dangerous to walk on that rug.
The views expressed in this article are the author's and may not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
