Why is it that no one is sympathizing with George Yeo & Co after the Wikileaks dump? Are Singaporeans evil?

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Hi there, lets dive in for a quickie – have you all notice something that is sorely missing from this whole Wikileaks business? Yes, a genuinely alarmed public; coming to think of it, did you know that 9 out of 10 netizens actually agree its a great idea to dump loads of classified information like rubber ducks in the internet? Coming to think of it, why is there so much sympathy for Wikileaks & Co? Could it be, the whole idea of a bunch of cyber snoopers hacking away in rooms where pizza and T-shirts regularly go to die conjures up homily sugary images of a svelte David squaring it off against big moustachio Goliath?

What’s behind the psychology that drives this gleeful schadenfreude?

Consider this, what if we take the trouble to reframe the whole Wikileaks dilemma in personal one to one terms of whether every person deserves to enjoy the right to privacy? Then don’t be surprised if the response of most undergrounders and netizen is they support the idea – since many have long winced come to regard the idea of privacy as synonymous with the notion of nursing their own oppositional identity against an ever more intrusive state – most if not all will rail against the idea that no one should ever be denied a right to privacy. Yet paradoxically, when we ask by what legitimacy do under grounders derive their higher authority to breach the private sphere of governments all round the world? Then these same people not only begin making teeth sucking sounds but they show no inclination  whatsoever to defend the same rights that they claim to be so passionate about vis-a-vis, safeguarding the right to privacy – and instead go off on a wide tangent about how evil needs to be defeated blah blah blah blah –  this just happens to be my first hand account based on my many discussions with under grounders and netizens since this whole Wikileaks issue tanked.

And this should prompt us to ask, why don’t most of us see the need to extend the same “rights” which we consider elemental to governments? It’s curious, as When Edison Chen inadvertently splayed pictures of all the tangled sheets exploits of his dearly most unfortunates online? Most netizens lamblasted him by packing him off to Coventry. But when it comes to politicians and power brokers the same spirit of empathy is not only missing; but some even rent, good lah, you deserve it lah!

One reason why I believe no one seems to be particularly sympathetic about governments losing their right to privacy – may have something to do with public perception that has eroded the cultural authority of governments since 9/11 – unlike those heady days some ten years ago when the public would rarely question officialdom – these days the public has grown smarter and more skeptical about the whole idea of power and politics – gone are the days when the public could just be counted to buy into whatever claptrap governments and the apparatus of mass assimilation are willing to dish out – in the wake of a generation that now looks back (whether they experienced or are reading about it, it’s the same thing) with regret at not heeding the Biblical wisdom: never have conversations with a Bush – if you don’t want to end up wandering around the desert for a very long time asking for directions – the Americans and her allies once ignored that stricture and rushed head long into a war only to discover the illusion that the weapons of mass destruction was merely a fiction created by the neocons to sell the idea of a good fight – this coupled with the recent financial crisis of 2008, where governments and big business seemed not only to be collusion but complicit in fleecing the tax payer – along with the recent BP fiasco simply goes to suggest governments and fat cat businesses don’t deserve to be trusted at all – they are all rotten right down to the core – besides when you’re powerful and pay yourself loads of money its hard to sell yourself as the underdog – hence the belief (real or imagine matters very little) that the world could from time to time do with a few cyber-pranksters to keep old-boy networked centers of power and politics, like governments and fat cat companies, in check. Cyber hooliganism may still be frowned up, but so long as they are perceived to be the underdogs in the fight against big power – they are certainly almost impossible to hate. And no amount of moralizing is going to change that.

Darkness 2011

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“Sir, it’s a giant cup cake, topped with a cherry and loads of twirls, but its armed with a 88mm, fires a photon loaded armor piercing shell – the skin looks like chocolate but it’s actually kinetic armor – I think it can blunt our best anti tank ordnance.”

“Gentlemen say hello to the future of warfare; this is how our Japanese and Korean friends are playing the game these days, no wonder our armor aren’t picking them off sooner – Gentlemen, they are using the power of cute; why didn’t our defense scientist think about that? If a kitty cat can drive everybody gaga crazy and make all their knees weak like jelly; then why do we even need to spend millions developing our arms industry in the virtual? I happen to know the team who made this; the man who developed this is Hiroshi Kondoh, he is 60 this year, he grew up on TOHO productions and moonlights as a designer for the Korayabashi stable – and these people want to return to their childhood where there is no ugliness, to an age of innocence – where everything was once white as spring snow.”

Review of a captured YK-88 enemy tank in the region of Inchi-Oso-Bahn somewhere along the marsh plains in the planet of D”ni – the Brotherhood Press 2011