The greater the power, the more need there is for transparency, because if the power is abused, the result can be so enormous. On the other hand, those people who do not have power, we mustn't reduce their power even more by making them yet more transparent.
Interpretation
Power should come with transparency to prevent abuse, but transparency shouldn't diminish those without power.
Julian Assange emphasizes the need for transparency as a safeguard against the potential abuse of power. He suggests that while those in power must be held accountable through transparency, we must also be cautious not to strip away the agency of those who lack power by demanding excessive scrutiny of their actions or privacy, which can lead to further oppression.
In practice
In a discussion about government surveillance, one might quote Assange to highlight the balance needed between transparency and personal privacy.
I saw that publishing all over the world was deeply constrained by self-censorship, economics and political censorship, while the military-industrial complex was growing at a tremendous rate, and the amount of information that it was collecting about all of us vastly exceeded the public imagination.
Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence and thereby eventually lose all ability to defend ourselves and those we love.
You can either be informed and your own rulers, or you can be ignorant and have someone else, who is not ignorant, rule over you.
The internet, our greatest tool of emancipation, has been transformed into the most dangerous facilitator of totalitarianism we have ever seen. The internet is a threat to human civilization.
What does this patch-sewing mean you ask? Eating and drinking. The heavy cloak of the body is always getting torn. You patch it with food and other ego-satisfactions.
But you're dead,' said Harry. 'Oh, yes,' said Dumbledore matter-of-factly. 'Then... am I dead too?' 'Ah,' said Dumbledore, smiling still more broadly. 'That is the question, isn't it? On the whole, dear boy, I think not.
There are eight rungs in charity. The highest is when you help a man to help himself.
Justice is the means by which established injustices are sanctioned
Part of the reason for the ugliness of adults, in a child's eyes, is that the child is usually looking upwards, and few faces are at their best when seen from below.
We raise our voices in holy gladness to celebrate the victory of the risen Christ over the terrible forces of death.
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