I apologize ahead of time if you find this post a bit long-winded and/or meandering. I've had some things colliding and making connections in my head this week, and this post is my attempt to walk myself through it all. So here goes...

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the Schwartz Values constellation. Wrapping my head around his theories was one of the major "Ah-ha!" moments of my Final Project. The most significant part for me was the idea that creativity is closely linked to the values of Benevolence and Self-direction, two values that are closely associated in Schwartz' constellation. On the opposite side of the circle is the value of Power. Piles of empirical evidence by Schwartz and many other researchers says that whatever value you hold most highly in the circle, the rest diminish in a statistically consistent way (try saying that ten times fast) so that the value on the opposite side of the circle is the one you feel the most opposed to your values.

Therefore, it is not psychologically possible for humans to value both power (and control) and benevolence at the same time.

Think about the implications of this for a few moments. It means that when any given person (or organization for that matter) takes an action designed to increase their power and control, it is not possible for them to be doing it for the greater good. Sure, it is possible for greater good to come from that action, but it is not possible actions motivated by valuing power and control to also be intended for the greater good.

I also recently wrote a post about privacy as compared to secrecy. Secrecy is all about power, no? It is about control, preventing people from being able to act because they don't have knowledge to act upon. Which means that people and organizations who are all about the secrets are also all about the power, and therefore cannot be all about the greater good.

Are you still following me? I hope so, because I have a few zigs to take yet.

All right. I forge on. A few days ago, I read a very interesting blog post dissecting Julian Assange's philosophy behind Wikileaks. If you want to read it, it's at: http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/julian-assange-and-the-computer-conspiracy-%E2%80%9Cto-destroy-this-invisible-government%E2%80%9D/#

In this fairly lengthy post, the author talks about how Assange isn't after social justice with all the cables he just released - which is what most media outlets assume. The cables aren't really damaging, and mostly just confirm things that intelligent people already pretty much knew - they're more embarrassing than anything. People aren't going to get fired, tried, court martialed or assassinated over them. But they will make the professional paranoids even more paranoid.

And that's Assange's purpose. Any given organization can only operate to the extent of the efficiency and effectiveness of its communications, and its ability to communicate with its environment. If those communications are choked off because of paranoia about leaks, the organization kills itself. Assange isn't trying to give the US government a virus, or even a punch to the face. He's trying to give it an auto-immune disorder.

This is already happening with the various pieces of copyright legislation the Big Media is trying to push through a few different places, including here in Canada. If they succeed in the legislation, they will be choking off their communications with each other, and with their environment - in this case, their audience and potential future content generators. They're in the process of giving themselves an auto-immune disorder.

And now back to values. The power and control that is being deperately sought by various government agencies and departments, and by Big Media is not just causing the metaphorical equivalent of Multiple Sclerosis, but is also directly opposed to the values of Benevolence and Self-direction, which are tightly linked to creativity. In other words, the more they chase after power and control, the less they can be creative and innovative to change with their environment, and the more likely that they are as doomed in the long run as the dinosaurs, who also couldn't change with their environment.

And it means that any statement on the part of government or Big Media that they are keeping secrets, seizing control and maintaining power for the greater good - for a growing/stable economy, for the economic benefit of the artists, or what have you - is so much bulls**t.

But we knew THAT already, didn't we?