Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence and thereby eventually lose all ability to defend ourselves and those we love. In a modern economy it is impossible to seal oneself off from injustice.
If we have brains or courage, then we are blessed and called on not to frit these qualities away, standing agape at the ideas of others, winning pissing contests, improving the efficiencies of the neocorporate state, or immersing ourselves in obscuranta, but rather to prove the vigor of our talents against the strongest opponents of love we can find.
If we can only live once, then let it be a daring adventure that draws on all our powers. Let it be with similar types whos hearts and heads we may be proud of. Let our grandchildren delight to find the start of our stories in their ears but the endings all around in their wandering eyes.
The whole universe or the structure that perceives it is a worthy opponent, but try as I may I can not escape the sound of suffering. Perhaps as an old man I will take great comfort in pottering around in a lab and gently talking to students in the summer evening and will accept suffering with insouciance. But not now; men in their prime, if they have convictions are tasked to act on them.
The above quote is from Julian Assange, a programmer, journalist, and activist.
Julian Assange is probably best known as the public face of whistleblower website WikiLeaks which rose to mainstream prominence when it released a “classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad” under the title Collateral Murder.
He is an inspiring figure dedicated to justice, which is something that our government should support rather than obstruct or outlaw. For a video profile on Julian Assange, see this SBS Dateline episode entitled The Whistleblower.