Zizek: Assange turns 50 in jail – a reminder of a Western democracy paradox he uncovered, the place non-freedom offers a way of freedom

It’s a twisted irony that the 50th birthday of jailed journalist Julian Assange comes only a day earlier than the US’ Independence Day. That reminds us of the darkish points of the ‘Land of the Free’ and most of Western democracies.

At present, WikiLeaks co-founder Assange is celebrating his 50th birthday, being held on the Belmarsh maximum-security jail in London as Washington seeks his extradition to the US, the place he could possibly be jailed for as much as 175 years if discovered responsible. 

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When Belarus pressured a Ryanair aircraft en route from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk with the intention to detain opposition activist Roman Protasevich, this act of piracy was met by international condemnation. Nevertheless, we should always keep in mind that Western powers did precisely the identical in 2013, when the aircraft carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was pressured to land in Austria. It was accomplished below order of the US, which had alleged that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was on board, making an attempt to get from Russia to Latin America. So as to add insult to harm, Snowden was not on the aircraft.

In opposition to his will, Assange grew to become a logo of this darkish aspect of Western democracies, a logo of our wrestle in opposition to the brand new digital types of management and regulation over our lives that are rather more environment friendly than the outdated “totalitarian” ones. Many Western liberals level out that there are international locations with rather more brutal direct oppression than the UK and US – so why such an outcry about Assange? True, however in these international locations oppression is open and apparent, whereas what we’re getting now within the liberal West is the oppression which largely leaves intact our sense of freedom. Assange introduced out this paradox of non-freedom skilled as freedom.

That’s why all of the soiled methods had been used in opposition to Assange – an entire character assassination, from describing him as personally insupportable to false accusations about his alleged illegal sexual exercise and lies about him “smearing faeces” on the partitions of the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Fearing a principled confrontation with Assange – do I’ve the correct to reveal state secrets and techniques once they show state dedicated murderous crimes? – they descended to the extent of private lies and rumors. The horror of such a process isn’t just that it alerts a degradation of political debate – it additionally targets Assange as a person. Assange isn’t just a logo, he’s a residing one that has suffered rather a lot within the final decade. Independence Day is normally celebrated with fireworks, parades, ceremonies and household reunions… however one household will certainly not be reunited, that of Assange.

Based on a legend (in all probability not more than that), Neil Armstrong, after making step one on the Moon on July 20, 1969 and saying his well-known “That’s one small step for man, one big leap for mankind,” had been adopted by an enigmatic comment: “Good luck, Mister Gorsky.” 

Many individuals at NASA thought it was an informal comment regarding some rival Soviet Cosmonaut. We needed to wait until July 5, 1995 when, whereas answering questions following a speech, Armstrong defined the enigma: “In 1938, when he was a child in a small mid-western city, he was enjoying baseball with a pal within the yard. His pal hit the ball, which landed in his neighbour’s yard by their bed room window. His neighbours had been Mr and Mrs Gorsky. As he leaned down to choose up the ball, younger Armstrong heard Mrs Gorsky shouting at Mr Gorsky, ‘intercourse! You need intercourse?! … You will get intercourse when the child subsequent door walks on the moon!’” That is what actually occurred 31 years later.

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Upon listening to this anecdote, I imagined a model with Julian Assange. Let’s say that, when he was visited in his jail by his companion Stella Morris they usually had been separated by the same old thick glass, he dreamt about intimate contact together with her, and she or he tersely replied: “Intercourse! You need intercourse?! … You’ll get intercourse when you’ll stroll freely on the streets of New York, celebrated as a hero of our time!” – a prospect no much less utopian than to think about in 1938 human will stroll on the moon. That’s why we should always put all our vitality into attaining this purpose, with the hope that, before 31 years from now, we’ll have the ability to say with all sincerity: Good luck, Mr. Assange!

As if nodding to the Rolling Stones track, these in energy presume that point is on their aspect – if they only proceed preserving Assange in his standing of the residing useless, we’ll progressively overlook about him. It’s our responsibility to show them incorrect.

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