Re: <nettime> "Speak Out with Snowden, Assange and Manning"

[Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com>]

On 09/16/2015 12:41 PM, wcameronjackson@gmail.com wrote:

> The sculpture seems to beg the question of "standing up" as an endeavor
> in itself. As is rightly pointed out, these figures are now, by and
> large, unable to "stick their heads out." Their chairs are inaccessible
> (or, at best, they may kneel on them).

Well, let's see, one of the three has qualified freedom of movement in 
Russia, continues to make discrete and powerful interventions through a 
variety of media, has changed millions of lives with his revelations and 
his example, and seems to have done more to politicize sys admins than 
anyone ever. Another of the three publishes a constant stream of 
analysis from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and has just penned the 
preface to the long-awaited scholarly book that assesses the immensely 
detailed complex of leaks known (in the title of said book) as "The 
WikiLeaks Files: The World According to US Empire." The third of the 
three, who leaked said leaks, maintains a much more personal kind of 
resistance in the worst kind of prison cell imaginable and that 
resistance matters a lot to a lot of people, yours truly included. 
Doesn't seem to be a lot of kneeling going on. I guess some people can't 
stand to have heroes and I'm not one of them. These folks are 
courageous, they're effective, they acted for all of us, and if it's not 
possible to build such people a monument then you may as well forget 
politics. Sometimes, the ability to look up is a virtue.

admiringly, Brian


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