Assange: ‘This generation is burning the mass media to the ground’

WikiLeaks editor in chief Julian Assange delivered a video address to a forum at the Splendour in the Grass music festival on July 29. The transcript and video of his speech appears below.

* * *

When I was 12, my family and I lived in Bryon Bay. Some days I would try to climb up to the lighthouse.

Earth would overhang the seacliffs and sometimes a pebble would shift or a gull would cry and I would wonder if I was standing on the overhang.

Later I would look back and see that, in fact, there had been nothing between me and the waters below.

At any given moment I could not see where I was. I could only see where I had been and wanted to go. Only with perspective could I understand.

We are all like that. We all laugh at the dorky fashions from 10 years ago, but we think we’re totally cool now.

Well, we are — but in a more important way.

We are becoming the agents of perspective. This generation is burning the mass media to the ground.

We are reclaiming our rights to world history.

We are ripping open secret archives from Washington to Cairo.

We are reclaiming the rights to share ourselves and our times with each other — to be the writers and agents of our own history.

We don’t know yet exactly where we are. But we can see where we are going.

The change in perspective that has happened over the last year is what this generation is going to use to find our lighthouse.

And when we get there, we’ll turn the fucking spotlight on.

So enjoy Splendour in the Grass. Find each other. Find every perspective you can. You’ll need it in the adventure ahead.

Video: Julian Assange Splendour Forum Address 2011. Splendour in the Grass.