The deeply moving footage of Julian Assange coming home to Australia provides an example of something that seemed impossible — until it happened.
Julian Assange embracing his wife Stella at Canberra airport on Wednesday night. Assange lawyer Barry Pollack on the right. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation screenshot via YouTube/Fair Use)
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com.au
Listen to Tim Foley reading this article.
The thing that stands out for me the most when watching the deeply moving footage of Julian Assange arriving home to Australia is how impossible this all felt until it happened.
If you’ve been following this case for a while, you know what I’m talking about. This was the moment you’d dream of in your quiet, private moments, but could never fully allow yourself to believe would actually happen.
It was very easy to imagine Assange dying in a prison cell, either in the near future at Belmarsh Prison in London or further along the timeline in some U.S. hellhole.
It was possible to imagine him getting out many years from now, his children fully grown and half his life stolen from him.
It was even possible to imagine him getting out one day on some legal technicality or whatever and living out the rest of his life in a nation that has an oppositional relationship with Washington like Edward Snowden, maybe. But coming home, to Australia?? No chance.
And yet there he is. It happened.
It’s easy to get so lost in all the emotion and controversy and discussion about the details of Assange’s case and his plea bargain that you forget to appreciate the fact that an impossible thing just happened. That this was a historic event which very few of us believed was ever going to occur — until it did.
And I don’t know about you but I personally find this all rather humbling. I never voiced my dark pessimism about the future of Assange’s plight publicly because it’s important to push hard for victory even when the odds appear stacked against you, but I honestly did not believe what just happened was going to happen.
And I was completely wrong.
Which makes me wonder, what else have I been doing that with? What other battles that feel almost futile right now will one day make a fool of me by yielding an unexpected victory?
Hell, maybe anything is possible. Maybe what just happened with Assange can happen with any of the other injustices and abuses we see in our world today.
Maybe it can happen with Palestine.
Or with the build-up to war with Russia and China. Or with the corruption, opacity and malfeasance of our own governments. Or with the empire itself. Or with capitalism entirely.
Home. pic.twitter.com/OZAcXloxiP
— Stella Assange #FreeAssangeNOW (@Stella_Assange) June 26, 2024
Maybe we really do win this thing. Maybe that’s not a pipe dream after all. As with the Assange case it might not happen in the most grand and egoically satisfying way we’d want it to, but what does?
This isn’t a Hollywood movie, it’s real life. Real life doesn’t move the way Hollywood conditions us to expect it to. Real life produces anticlimactic victories and mundane miracles. And it moves in ways that the ego cannot anticipate.
It’s comfortable to be jaded and pessimistic. You feel less vulnerable. You look cooler. You don’t have to deal with the emotional work of disappointment. And admittedly, you are very often proven right. That is, until you’re not.
And maybe that’s not the most authentic way to come at this thing. Maybe it’s better to throw ourselves into this fight not just believing we might win, but knowing that we will.
Maybe all that pessimism and reservedness is holding us back from really swinging for the fences and leaving it all in the ring. And maybe it’s based on completely false assumptions about what we’re actually capable of anyway.
Assange has been freed. Maybe all of humanity can be.
Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.
This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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Like the saying goes: History is full of things that were impossible right up to the moment they became inevitable.
Or to quote a certain spaceship captain, “we’ve done the impossible and that makes us mighty.”
No doubt about it, Caitlin Johnstone & Tim Foley, bring a great vibe, spirit, peace, love, i.e., “It’s easy to get so lost in all the emotion and controversy and discussion about the details of Assange’s case and his plea bargain that you forget to appreciate the fact that an impossible thing just happened,” 1) Julian Assange has LEFT Belmarsh Prison, legally! Destination: a US Courtroom, in the Mariana Islands; thereafter, Home, Australia!
“an impossible thing just happened,” 2) “SEEING” Julian Assange, in “business attire;” & “Julian Assange being “of sound mind & body.” Obviously, 100%, PRESENT!!!
“an impossible thing just happened,” 3) Julian Assange’s “safe passage” was NOT sabotaged!!! Many hours, later, “Julian Assange is home, Safe!!! “Free At Last.” CONGRATULATIONS, Australia!
….. “Julian Assange has been freed. Maybe all of humanity can be.“ CAITLIN JOHNSTONE
“an impossible thing just happened,” 4) JULIAN ASSANGE “owned up to” a [SINGLE] charge of conspiracy to obtain defense information, a violation of the U.S. Espionage Act;” &, “Sentenced” for time already “SERVED!”
…… “With this pronouncement, it appears that you will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man,” Judge Ramona Manglona.
Concluding, Assange’s Defense, “Justice For Julian,” Team’s years & years of passion, perseverance, diligence, “restored sanity & humanity” in AUKUS’ foreign policy!!! The take-away, “grasp tightly what is real in life.”
TY, Caitlin Johnstone, Tim Foley, CN, “your work is Superbly, Spot-On!!!” TY. Ciao
The peaceful, voluntary breakup of the USSR in 1991 was not predicted by anyone and seemed impossible till it happened.
The release of Julian Adsange in 2024 was not predicted by anyone and seemed impossible till it happened.
What else is not predicted by anyone and seems impossible till it happens?
Dr Jill Stein for President of the USA!!
And the psyop continues.
Turning Julian loose under all the conditions, known and unknown, is a surprising tactic for sure but aside from the real and personal difference in his life, there’s a lot of wrong that needs to be set right. The government needs to be afraid of journalists and the people. It’s the other way around.
I’m not a pessimist, but in this life on Earth, there is one thing that is IMPOSSIBLE, and that is: coming back from Nuclear War!
Hello Caitlin Johnstone! I often place your writing on our WOMEN RISING RADIO FB page. Just thought I’d remind you of this quote from Gandhi: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Glad your having a moment.
Even this pessimist is happy for the Assange family.
However the Empires Death Star is still here.
No Hans Solo rocket down the Toilet exhaust.
The pessimism and nihilism that are so pervasive in this moment are characteristically liberal. You can spot a liberal miles away from that apocalyptic vision. Some write for this site, and their opinions are welcome, but to embrace an optimistic view of the future, one must remember the sun rises in the east.
Thank you for posting this film. Finally some Great Good News! I hope this is just the start for more.
Immense thanks to Julian Assange and to the people who fought for him and the underlying right of people to hold governments to account.
The last 4 years has emphasised the need for this and the use of the word “malfeasance” has great significance and suggests a line of action to restore public trust, because in all instances there is the common theme of governments to fail in their fiduciary obligation to act on behalf of the people and officials have displayed malfeasance, in office and in some cases medical malfeasance by their actions.
For our children’s sakes and to honour Julian, let’s get on with it>
It’s public opinion that allowed this to happen. Here in Australia, support for Julian has gradually been getting stronger and stronger. Imagine a 3rd candidate running for the US election on supporting Palestine. The democrats would then be forced to do something meaningful to end Israel’s genocide, even if temporary. Whatever you may think of Tucker Carlson, he should also be thanked. He has recently continually supported Julian and bagged his government for his incarceration.
I hope Julian, Stella and their kids can just lay on a beautiful beach and heal…
Keep Hope Alive!
Julian was fortunate that he was a journalist and his mates knew how to use the media to keep his unjust case alive and well. Many other innocent enemies of this system based on lies and wars die in punished obscurity. That doesn’t detract all from his bravery and honesty but it does make him one of a fortunate few if it can be said that surviving so many years in a torturous hell hole can be aid to be lucky. We should try to remember the others and support them .
“Hell, maybe anything is possible. Maybe what just happened with Assange can happen with any of the other injustices and abuses we see in our world today…. Maybe it can happen with Palestine.”
That was one of the thoughts that flew around in my head after I heard the news. Because, as amazing and impossible as it may seem, we’re already seeing cracks in the whole disastrous abomination of the global imperialists, including the fantasy of the Zionist State. For example, see this interview by the Electronic Intifada with ex-Israeli economist Shir Hever who describes in detail the imminent economic collapse of the Zionist State that he is seeing. hxxps://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/how-gaza-genocide-will-lead-israels-collapse-shir-hever?
Or this from an interview with Norman Finkelstein who talks about the critical mass that is gathering toward a tipping point with regard to the utter failure of the racist Zionist ideology. hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GeCzBHoKBY
What I see over and over is that when a certain understanding, or a certain sense of “rightness,” impresses itself upon the collective human consciousness, it comes with a force or power that causes the apparent and assumed “reality” that had seemed impregnable and undeniable to quite suddenly crumble. Today we are seeing many such cracks in the edifice of Empire and authoritarianism. Just look for them; you’ll find them everywhere, even in the desperation of the global elites to maintain their hegemony as the older systems are failing. Something else entirely is emerging. We are living in interesting times for sure.
“Julian Assange is a symobol of freedom in the world today, tomorrow, and forever. He will be one of the people, in the future, like one of the great prophets. In their day, they are repressed. And later they become a symbol. That’s what Julian Assange will become.”
-Jose’ Manuel Zelaya
-Freedom isn’t free-The Grayzone live
Wikileaks exposed the US role in a coup that removed him from power in 2009. His crime? using the power of the Presidency to help his people.
His eventual replacement, Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado, used that power to smuggle cocaine.
That picture of him looking out the window of the plane, you know what he’s doing? Cloud surfing. Like a little kid. I’m happy for him.