Maybe it's the generational divide. On "60 Minutes," WikiLeaks head Julian Assange is interviewed by a old-line establishment guy. In THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, he's written about by, yup, another old-line establishment guy. Maybe it's a cultural divide we Americans can't decode.
Whatever. Despite so much deconstruction by the media, including Bill Keller's noting the strong body odor, Assange remains an enigma. Probably not since the mysterious and equally eccentric activist Ralph Nader has someone so baffled us. Of course, we assume he must have some kind of personal agenda. But, even if we accept that, we are still in the dark about what are internal forces which drive such an unusual creature.
All we really know from the print reporting is that he's not like us. All we know from the broadcast interview is that he handles himself well enough to mask as much as he wants. In that, he mirrors the mastery of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions in seeking to know: Who is that masked man. Perhaps we should only focus on the questions the WikiLeaks have raised about the behavior of nations and its leaders. If the next download relates to corporations we might also focus on the behavior of business.





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