Jérémie Zimmermann, computer science engineer, friend of Julian Assange and Cypherpunk guest on the 2012 Assange TV series, spoke to CN Live! outside Assange’s courthouse about the miscarriage of justice inside.
Leaving the inhospitable grounds of Belmarsh Prison’s Woolwich Crown Court, one couldn’t fail to notice the protestor who was madly blowing a whistle. It was Jérémie Zimmermann, computer science engineer, friend of Julian Assange and Cypherpunk guest on the 2012 Assange TV series: “The World Tomorrow.” Zimmermann was a contributor to Assange’s book Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet (OR Books). He spoke of how the internet had changed for the worse over the last decade, and how the people holding Assange were “using the Magna Carta as toilet paper.” Cathy Vogan is executive producer of CN Live!
WOW. Jérémie Zimmerman’s speech is outstanding. Bravo! This guy should be on every TV Channel and Panel educating humanity. Not only are his views spot on, but he’s extremely articulate. His passion and depth of thought are powerful tools of change. Very impressed.
I saw him yesterday on “The Watchdog” panel discussion on Assange’s Extradition Hearing week. Equally impressive.
Thank you Cathy Vogan and Joe Lauria for publishing thought-provoking articles and for introducing to the public amazing “Shakers and Movers, people who can actually change people’s perspectives on the world, Assange, politics, etc. Bless you.
Jérémie Zimmermann should be a regular contributor to Consortium News. Coverage on the Assange trial has been excellent but loss of freedom via technology is another important issue that is not brought up as much as it should be.
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow is a document that was written just two years before the founding of Google in 1998…
“Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are all based on matter, and there is no matter here.”
“We must declare our virtual selves immune to your sovereignty, even as we continue to consent to your rule over our bodies. We will spread ourselves across the Planet so that no one can arrest our thoughts.”
The Internet started out as a voluntary meeting place where you could go to share ideas. Julian Assange and Edward Snowden remember when it was offered by small ISPs and not corporate monstrosities. Today, bits of information, lacking in physical matter, have become a weapon. Your location history appears in cyberspace and is kept in a storage facility owned by the Apple, Google, Facebook, or Microsoft monopoly of your choice. The physical and virtual worlds are no longer separated but coexist as a single unit. Money and property, reputation, memories, identity…all can be represented as bits in the cloud, and can be modified or fabricated by someone who has privileged access to it. Everyone is at risk, not only journalists. We were never given the option to negotiate the terms of service, but only to click “I agree.” There is no other choice to make in the binary Google universe but obey or abort. Web browsers have started asking for your phone number. It’s optional for now. How many years into the future will we have to give up our biometric data, our social security number and our credit score to go on the Internet, to eat out at a restaurant or to make a $3 purchase? What will be the consequences of giving ourselves away to companies who have already proven that they cannot be trusted?
With every moment that Julian Assange suffers this travesty, that has been on-going for more than a decade, he facilitates our ability to see what a charade our so called, political lives, are. With every smear, with every false accusation, with every lie, with every slander, with every piece of liable, they throw at him, with every Lawfare action they bring, it acts to focus for us just what the authoritarian establishment really represent? It is sad fact, that Mr. Assange in suffering all this mistreatment, this persecution, has acted as a ‘lightening rod’ of truth, a ‘magnifying glass’ through which the ‘bread and circuses’ of our political systems have been exposed. The plutocratic totalitarianism that has been engulfing western society for decades is now open to view. Unfortunately, for Julian Assange, he could never expect a just and decent trial in such an environment, even if he was deserving of a trial in the first place for telling the truth and exposing the corrupt and venal nature of those that make up the establishment that is now in control of our lives?
Thanks… CV
“the miscarriage of justice inside.”
The rule of man’s wearing of the cloak of rule of law is often facilitated by encouragement of, and immersion in, the conflation of law with justice.
The rule of man in present social relations is predicated upon the practice that the rule of law and taxes are for the little people – oscillation within that linear frame being deemed “justice” by some and beneficience/noblesse oblige by some others.
Julian’s RT program was a must see in 2012. This was one episode I always recall as it was truly an internet discussion of which you still hardly ever see. Other episodes had on world leaders and thinkers that still are important today. One would hope that these shows are well archived for future generations to see. Excellent; just an excellent interview, Cathy, with Jeremie.
And the audio was excellent also, Cathy!