Parenting 101 Case Study: Julian Assange

How To Create a Self-Loathing Psychopath with Delusions of Grandeur:

Originally I was going to write a tongue in cheek article on Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, the "whistleblower" site that has leaked highly secure military and diplomatic documents that not only put lives at risk, but also strains international relationships. I find now, that I can't find a single thing to laugh about in this instance, a rare occasion indeed.

Instead, everyone should know all about the real Julian Assange.

I can't claim to know much about Assange's father, and in fact I'm not entirely certain what he himself knows about his own father. His parents ran a "touring theater company" in his home country of Australia. By all accounts that I have come across, young Julian was raised like a feral animal, especially after his mother remarried. Her new husband was a disgusting individual.

Christine Assange remarried in 1979 to a member of a "new age" group called Sanitniketan Park Association, or The Great White Brotherhood, led by a woman named Anne Hamilton-Byrne, who taught a type of spiritual yoga. She drew the disillusioned and mentally disturbed to her side. Fully one quarter of the group members were nurses and physicians, who ran a private mental hospital in Kew. Because of their new found "beliefs", these medical personnel subjected their mentally fragile patients to LSD doses, electro-shock therapy, and lobotomies.

Anne Hamilton-Byrne kidnapped or "acquired" fourteen or more infants between 1968 and 1975. Some were children of members of the cult, others were obtained through illegal adoptions taken care of by members, and a few were newborn infants of patients at the mental facility, who were told their babies died at birth.

These lost children were raised at a remote location called Kia Lama. Their names were changed, they were taught that Hamilton-Byrne was their biological mother, and they were kept out of the public eye. Hamilton-Byrne even went so far as to try to create a master race, even falsely. She ordered all her "children's" hair be kept dyed blond.

For a short time, this is the life Julian Assange knew. And although it may have only lasted three years, the fact that his mother Christine found this life acceptable for her son is troubling.

In 1982, Christine Assange divorced her cult member husband, and took her two sons, kidnapping Julian's half brother, and went into hiding over the next five years. Moved from place to place and school to school, young Julian couldn't have easily formed any relationships with any peers who may have had a more positive input in his life. Instead, he was saddled with a crazy mother who raised him as if he were a wild dingo.

At 16, when most boys were driving, partying, and experiencing their teenage years to the fullest, Julian's mother bought him a computer. It was 1987, and the young Julian created or joined a group of hackers. In this atmosphere, Assange gained acceptance. The group's goals were simple: to hack into any computers available, with only a limited set of rules. "Don’t damage computer systems you break into (including crashing them); don’t change the information in those systems (except for altering logs to cover your tracks); and share information".

In 1989, Julian landed himself a girlfriend, and they had a son together. However, after authorities raided his home over Assange's hacking into numerous computers across Australia and Canada, she took a hike with their son. After a bitter battle, no custody agreement was met until 1999. In an hysterically ironic turn of the screw, Julian and his mother, who was a known parental child abductor herself, created Parent Inquiry Into Child Protection. This activist group is centered around the supposed need for a central "database" for unaccessible legal records related to child custody issues in Australia.

A mathematics and physics wiz, Assange went on to attend six universities in three years, keeping alive his wandering ways, a habit he continues to this day.

In 2006, he created Wikileaks. The rest I will naturally assume you all know and I won't bore you with the details.

As of this date, Assange is wanted in Sweden for rape, and he is hiding in the UK, which has refused to turn him over.

Julian Assange speaks in absolute monotone, and shows almost no emotions whatsoever, as if he is no more than a shell of a person. While he is obviously a genius, one must wonder if he has stepped over that invisible line into whatever realm other geniuses have crossed. It seems as if Assange is in the downswing of life despite his age, as if nothing is left other than bitterness and revenge.

I could almost feel sorry for him, except that he's put countless lives in danger in his childish temper tantrum against the everyday society that has obviously long rejected him. As each country refuses him citizenship, he will find he's become the hunted animal of the people he's betrayed in his quest for world glory. Not all are as nice as the American people; indeed, I would imagine he's ruffled the feathers of some less than savory people who will be only too happy to become the hunters. While his own followers have already turned against him, how can one doubt the potential outcome?

Julian Assange is a man without a country, certainly without a conscience, and if he's not careful in his dealings with those in high power, he may find himself a man without his life as well.