Wikileaks: Completely Predictable

Wikileaks is a byproduct the convergence of two trends: de-nationalism and loss of privacy. These two trends aren’t going away, and therefore opinions on Wikileaks are about as relevant as opinions on stem cell research: it’s happening, whether or not we like it.

De-nationalism

Many of the major issues today are caused by the fact that many of the world’s institutions are larger in scope than the geopolitical entities that attempt to govern them. Our world is geopolitically organized into nation-states, and yet its institutions are increasingly global. Examples of frictions caused by this abound: terrorism, piracy, the internet, and anti-drug laws are only the most oft cited. In each case, enacting laws by a single government is unable to affect the overall problem, as the issue is global, not national. Even financial sector regulation falls into this category (find any WSJ article on Sarbanes Oxley if you don’t believe me).

Loss of Privacy

Robert Scoble wrote an article entitled “privacy reboot needed” that is dead on point here. His first rule of privacy: anything you put into a computer could be public. Anyone who hasn’t internalized this lesson is a vulnerability to himself and the organization he works for.

The Twain

This is where Wikileaks comes in. Government classified information leaked via the internet. My response: “well yeah…”

The government, of course, has responded in very nation-state-y ways. Senators like our wonderful Joe Lieberman exerted pressure on corporations who provided payment services. The UK is holding Assange in solitary confinement without bail on charges that otherwise would not merit such treatment. And while the government didn’t need to steal the domain name, it definitely could have, via a constitutionally sketchy method first pioneered for use by the RIAA/MPAA and currently supported by the judiciary.

It’s important to note that the US has never won a pseudo-war. It’s currently losing the war on drugs and the war on piracy, while not doing much better on the war on terrorism. And, as it’s virtually impossible to shut down access to information that has made it onto the internet, the US isn’t going to win this one either.

The sad truth, nation-states: the internet is bigger than you are.

Morality

My argument here has nothing to do with morality whatsoever. I honestly don’t have an opinion on whether it’s moral to leak or to post classified government cables. Morality is only relevant when there is a choice to be made. Here, the only choice to be made is to accept reality or ignore it — the trends will continue regardless of what we think of them.

What happened when Bush blocked stem cell funding in 2001 for moral reasons? Oh right…Europe got a lead in stem cell research and nothing changed.