[D-G] The Deleuzian Philosophy of Julian Assange
John Young
jya at pipeline.com
Mon Dec 20 03:44:39 PST 2010
https://fixingtheeconomists.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/the-deleuzian-philosoph
y-of-julian-assange/
The Deleuzian Philosophy of Julian Assange
Philip Pilkington
[Excerpt]
Ref: http://cryptome.org/0002/ja-conspiracies.pdf
As already shown, Assange borrows heavily from the information sciences -
more specifically, cognitive neuroscience and computer science. This is
extremely interesting because this leads his philosophy to resemble certain
contemporary post-structural philosophies most specifically, that of the
20th century French philosopher Gilles Deleuze.
Deleuze too borrowed heavily from the information sciences to support his
theories - and, unsurprisingly, he too came to very similar political
conclusions
as Assange. Deleuze saw political organisations - and organisations
generally -
in terms of what he referred to as structures and multiplicities.
For Deleuze, structures were closed-systems - closed on themselves and
resistant to anything outside of themselves - while multiplicities were
open-systems, which communicated freely with the world around them.
Throughout Deleuzes two works of political theory, Anti-Oedipus and
A Thousand Plateaus - both written in collaboration with the French
psychoanalyst Felix Guattari - he deals with many of the same ideas
as Assange does.
Deleuze, like Assange, uses complex metaphors derived from mathematics
and science to explain the world around him. And like Assange, he sees
the solution to the problem of closed-systems as to attempt to break
through congealed sructures and promote communication and the free
spread of information.
I wont pass any judgments on Assanges politics or his philosophy other
than that I appreciate his freeing up certain information and recognise
that he is an extremely intelligent individual. But I will say that Assanges
philosophy - and WikiLeaks as an organisation - is perhaps one of the
purest manifestations of a Deleuzian political movement ever to come
into existence (Deleuze referred to such a political movement as a
War Machine).
If nothing else, WikiLeaks is a fascinating chapter in the history of ideas.
-----
More information about the Deleuze-Guattari
mailing list