A Better Place
Some human beings sacrifice themselves for all our good. One such person is young Greta Thunberg (below), who keeps blocking traffic in Sweden -- and keeps getting arrested -- because she wants the energy industry to stop profiting from human extinction. As the world burns this summer, Greta found herself in court again. "Why is it us -- who are taking action in line with science to stop the fossil industry -- who face legal consequences, when the fossil industry continues to destroy the chance for people to live safe and worthy lives?"
Good question. Here's another good one, which Thunberg posed to one of the the cops who arrested her. She asked him during the court proceedings what he thought a person should do to slow down the climate crisis, which is killing life on the planet. Good question, he replied -- admitting that he didn't have a good answer.
Julian Assange is another person who is sacrificing for all of us. He is rotting in UK's Belmarsh Prison, awaiting extradition to the U.S. for allegedly violating the reactionary, World War I-era U.S. Espionage Act. What heinous act did the Australian commit? His Wikileaks exposed the war crimes -- torture, drone assassination -- that U.S. soldier Chelsea Manning could not witness in silence. Manning has since been pardoned, but Assange is still behind bars.
The Trump administration, which extended the Espionage Act to journalists, even contemplated killing Assange. Thanks to this 2021 investigative report in Yahoo News (whose authors could be prosecuted in the future), we learned that Trump's CIA director Mike Pompeo had "blood in the eye" for Assange.
Once upon a time, Wikileaks was considered cool by its big media partners like the New York Times and The Guardian, which won prizes off Assange's revelations. Then they conveniently forgot about him when the national security state cracked down on him. Now the mainstream media has belatedly rushed to defend him, after they realized that their journalists' own freedom is at stake.
The problem, as Assange's wife and attorney Stella Assange points out in this thoughtful interview, is that the U.S. national security state is more powerful now and more impervious to criticism.
We, too, are part of this official intransigence. We go uncomplainingly to our extermination, or complacently observe that of our children, grandchildren or friends. Of course, we are quick to see the flaws in Thunberg or Assange -- or Kennedy -- because the media told us about them. The people who are our saviors are really our enemies. The New York Times said so. So did NPR. And Rolling Stone. Let's get mad at them, these critics -- instead of Big Oil or Wall Street or the government.
And so the frogs boil slowly in the pot. But it's more rapidly lately. Hey, isn't it getting hot in here? (At least we have Greta and Julian and RFK Jr. to argue about -- they're wack jobs, right?)
Greta Thunberg gets arrested in Sweden for protesting human extinction.