Does WikiLeaks Promote Conversation?

I feel caught between two goods: on the one hand there is free speech. One of the most important  underpinnings of our American way of life is the deeply held belief in its importance.  We take the freedom to speak our mind without reprisal seriously and our court system ensures that it be so.

On the other hand is the importance of what I think of as private speech.  The kind of conversation that takes place in every home in America--everywhere in the world, I would hope-- especially over the dinner table.  (Well, whether most Americans even have dinner together, much less a conversation during that time, is another question. But for purposes of this discussion, let's assume that is so.)  This is the kind of conversation where we talk about the neighbors, and the authorities at school and work, and about our friends and about our enemies.  It is assumed that everyone in the conversation regards it as private and holds dear the Vegas-like concept of "what gets said in the family stays in the family." 

 

There is good reason for private conversation.  It is the basis for our trying out views--however controversial or ill-formed or tentative or pejorative--on others and getting their feedback.  We may love our neighbors as ourselves, but there are moments when that dog of theirs has fouled our driveway one time too many and we want to vent about it among ourselves, never intending that our comments are shared with the folks next door who dote on their dear Fido.  And there are instances of our children's talking about favorite teachers in a mocking or insulting way that is perfectly innocent and to be shared with only the family (as an object lesson, perhaps, in which we can discuss appropriate attitudes towards teachers and all others without shutting our children down), not with others. 

We all know this to be true.  And as far as I am concerned, the inner workings of our government officials, including people in the ambassadorial and intelligence and military and some other ranks, are meant to be private.  It's where opinions can be explored without fear of their being shared with outsiders.  And the conversations with our global counterparts in those roles should be private as well.

This is really not about free speech at all.  WikiLeaks, in my opinion, is the effort of a misguided fellow named Julian Assange and his followers to expose whatever secrets there are in the world because, well, just because he suspects all private conversation as evidence of conspiracy or bad intent or worse.  And he doesn't like to be left out.

He's wrong.  And dangerously so, in my opinion.  Where is it written that each of us has the right to be privy to the innermost workings--especially conversationally, whether by phone or email or any other medium--of our government and diplomatic corps?  As David Brooks so aptly put it in his op-ed piece in yesterday's New York Times, the Wiki-Leaks dump will "probably damage the global conversation, just as our relationships with our neighbors would be damaged if every private assessment were brought were brought to the light of day."

 

Assange strikes me at the guy who, when a kid in school, never got included in the conversations that the "in" crowd was having and decided that when he grew up he'd do something about that.  What a pity.  I'd like to go to bed at night feeling that the hard-working folks who run our country and lead our diplomatic and military efforts around the globe are given the opportunity to talk amongst themselves--and with their peers around the world--without Julian Assange listening at the keyhole. 

 

Comments

[Kris Manos]

I couldn't agree more. While done in the name of openness, this disclosure will only serve to hinder the open communication within our government, which is essential to our diplomatic efforts. I have yet to see where this even fits with WikiLeaks stated purpose: "providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices." If private dinner table conversation becomes a censored injustice, we're not in a democracy anymore!