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.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the limitations on free publishing due to various censorships while contrasting it with the vast growth of information collection by powerful entities.
Julian Assange's quote reflects the increasing restrictions on open publication fueled by self-censorship, economic factors, and political pressures, amidst the rapid expansion of the military-industrial complex. He suggests that this powerful entity collects an immense amount of information on individuals, surpassing what the public is aware of, thereby raising concerns about privacy, freedom of expression, and the implications of such surveillance in society.
In practice
In a discussion about freedom of speech at a university event.
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.
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.
I love life - that’s my real weakness. I love it so much that I am incapable of imagining what is not life.
Women's virtue is frequently nothing but a regard to their own quiet and a tenderness for their reputation.
The emptiness I speak about is not the emptiness the mind imagines. It is not blank. Your body can continue expressing in a natural way. Intelligence is there. Emotions can come. Everything can play, but inside there is total serenity and peace. No planning, no strategising, no personal identity is there. Just the space of pure being. It is what we are, but we dream and believe we are not.
it is wrong to chide the novel for being fascinated by mysterious coincidences... but it is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life. For he thereby deprives his life a dimension of beauty.
There is one act par excellence which profanes money by going directly against the law of money, an act for which money is not made. That act is giving.
I have no predilection for unpopularity as such, but I hold it much preferable to the popularity of a day, which perishes with the transient topic upon which it is grounded.
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