There is No Head

It’s pretty clear that Julian Assange is going to end up in an American jail probably for the rest of his life. After his recent extraordinary legal treatment he’s likely to suffer from a rendition on the way to Sweden. He’s lucky that he’s white or he might end up hanging.

I wanted to share a premise from Derrick Jensen which rings true in this case (and so many others): The property of those higher on the hierarchy is more valuable than the lives of those below. It is acceptable for those above to increase the amount of property they control—in everyday language, to make money—by destroying or taking the lives of those below. This is called production. If those below damage the property of those above, those above may kill or otherwise destroy the lives of those below. This is called justice.

This intense focus on Julian Assange though, once again betrays a major weakness of the state. I remember numerous marches against globalization and the police attempting to focus on people who they viewed as ‘leaders’. So they will pressure those assigned leaders, snatch them off the street, arrest them, torture them, deprive them of basic things, hold them in solitary confinement. Essentially make an example of them. The case of Alex Hundert is also exemplary in this regard.

But it’s not going to work. There are no leaders. As King Abdullah, the rotting royal of Saudi Arabia impotently demanded in a leaked cable: “cut off the head of the snake”. There is no head, my dear king. But once yours and the one’s of so many other dear leaders hit the floor then we just might be getting somewhere.

Wikileaks will go on. It is not one man. It is the truth. It is shining a bright light at the shadowy powerful. It is essential. It cannot be stopped, as much as the small-minded might hope.

So Julian Assange will be sacrificed but the struggle continues.