La citation du jour (2)

La nationalisation de nos corps est en effet le résultat direct de la nationalisation des services de santé. À partir du moment où la santé est publique, où nous payons tous pour les soins de tout le monde, toute restriction peut se justifier par la réduction des « coûts sociaux ». Vous fumez? Vous allez coûter plus cher à la société! Vous augmenter vos risques d'accident à bicyclette? Vous allez coûter plus cher à la société!

-Martin Masse

La citation du jour

It is a fact that the dollar and most other currencies have gone down 98-99% against gold since 1913 when the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was created.

-Egon Von Greyerz

La citation du jour

In short, the entire tilt of public policy in both countries has been towards home ownership – resulting in a stunning 70% or so of the population having one, with the overwhelming bulk of their net worth now in a single asset.

And maybe that’s exactly the problem. Maybe seven in ten people didn’t deserve to have houses in the first place. Couldn’t afford them. Should never scored mortgages. Were strung along, lured by house porn, cheap money and a bar that was far too low.

Why does anyone have a right to buy a $400,000 home when all they have is $20,000? Why should the government stand behind an idiot lender willing to finance a deal like that? Don’t pro-housing policies just drive prices higher and responsibility lower? So why should taxpayers move in and save a derelict homeowner’s ass when the inevitable happens?

You can see why the worst lies ahead.

And why I was a dismal politician.

-Garthe Turner

Portrait de Julian Assange, fondateur de Wikileaks

Via Global Guerrillas:

Sunday, 15 August 2010

GLOBAL GUERRILLA: Julian Assange

Julian Assange is the front man for Wikileaks. Wikileaks, if you haven't been keeping up with current events, is a network that runs a site dedicated to makingleaks easy. It's been very effective at this. Wins include:

• 91,000 DoD secret reports on the war in Afghanistan (between 2006-2010).
• Secret gun camera footage from Iraq reworked into a viral video entitled "Collateral Murder."
• TSA screening manual (unredacted).

However, what's really interesting about Julian Assange is that he is one of the most important innovators in warfare today. A true global guerrilla. In other words, he's effectively adapted modern methods of warfare/conflict to engage and defeat the biggest nation-states in the world (in a relatively non-violent way). Here's some highlights on how he has used global guerrilla methods to accomplish this feat:

An Open Source Insurgency

Wikileaks is, if you dive below the surface, an open source insurgency (as we have seen in Iraq, Nigeria...). An open source insurgency is a loose network of otherwise unrelated groups/individuals that attack enemies as a swarm. How did he pull this diverse network together? Julian created a very simpleplausible promise around which this diverse community assembled. The promise can be seen on the "Wikileaks:Submissions" page:

Submitting confidential material to WikiLeaks is safe, easy and protected by law.

The recent wins against the US government is a clear demonstration that this promise -- the idea that it possible to safely leak anything, regardless the power of target -- is plausible. The promise above is followed by an advertisement of its plausibility:

Over 100,000 articles catalyzed world-wide. Every source protected. No documents censored. All legal attacks defeated.

Read the article: "Open Source Insurgency >> How to Start." for more about how to start an open source insurgency through developing a plausible promise.

Individual Superempowerment

Wikileaks uses individual superempowerment -- the ability of one individual to do what it took a large company or government agency to do a couple of decades ago -- to its advantage. In fact, the site is designed as a tool to confer superempowerment to anybody that connects to it. It's both a highly trafficked global stage (a place to successfully reveal the hidden acts of others and/or to do extreme damage those with secrets) and a personal CIA with huge global resources.

Systems Disruption

Like other open source insurgencies, Wikileaks uses a very effective method of attack called systems disruption. Systems disruption is pretty simple. It simply means that small and carefully aimed attacks against any large network/system, can result in levels of damage a million times greater than the attack itself. Why? The dynamics of the targeted system serve to amplify the damage of the attack. Here, Julian explores how leaks can be used as social systems disruption in his article "The Non-linear Effects of Leaks on Unjust Systems of Governance"

The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive "secrecy tax") and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulting in decreased ability to hold onto power as the environment demands adaption.

Hence in a world where leaking is easy, secretive or unjust systems are nonlinearly hit relative to open, just systems. Since unjust systems, by their nature induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of governance.

In Julian's analysis above, there's also a hint of John Boyd (America's best military thinker). Julian's focus appears to be on disrupting/slowing the decision making cycles (OODA loops) of organizational opponents through a "secrecy tax" (a tax that is radically increased through leaks). Like Boyd, he maintains that any organization unable to respond to environmental changes, due to very slow decision making cycles, will eventually succumb to competitors.

Posted by John Robb on Sunday, 15 August 2010 at 02:06 PM

Le village olympique de Vancouver

Un immense éléphant blanc, gracieusement offert par les contribuables Britanno-colombiens.

Les Montréalais auront sûrement des souvenirs de 1976...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKUbdlpjHGE&feature=player_embedded#!

Merci à Garth Turner de Greater Fool.

La citation du jour

“One may well ask: How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others? The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

La citation du jour (2)

But I believe – maybe it's more of a hope – that the days of fiat money are numbered. The only solution to our monetary problems is to get government out of the money business. Like every other business in which government becomes involved, this one has become polluted beyond recognition.

-Robert Prechter