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PERSONA #1 - THE NEW CLOTHES OF THE METICULOUS ARCHIVIST

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METICULOUS ARCHIVIST

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meticulous (adj.)

1530s, “fearful, timid,” a sense now obsolete, from Latin meticulosus, metuculosus “fearful, timid,” literally “full of fear,” from metus “fear, dread, apprehension, anxiety,” a word of unknown origin. The old word seems to have become archaic after c. 1700, fossilized in a passage of Sir Thomas Browne, though it turns up occasionally and obscurely as late as 1807.

It began to return to English in a sense of “fussy about details” by 1840s, from French méticuleux “timorously fussy” [Fowler, who rails against it, attributes this use in English to “literary critics”], the French descendant of the Latin word, but it took time for this to percolate. Meticulous appears 1852 in Halliwell’s “Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words” (with the definition “timorous”) and is marked “obsolete” in Craig’s dictionary of the same year. It was listed by Richard Trench [“English Past and Present,” 1868], who started the movement that became the OED,  among the words that had been “rejected and disallowed by the true linguistic instincts of the national mind.“  

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archivist (n.)

1753, a native formation or else from Medieval Latin or Italian archivista or French archiviste (see archives + -ist).

archives (n.): c. 1600, “records or documents preserved as evidence,” from French archif (16c., Modern French archives), from Late Latin archivum (plural archiva) “written records,” also the place where they are kept, from Greek ta arkheia “public records,” plural of arkheion “town hall, public building,” from arkhē “government,” literally “beginning, origin, first place” (verbal noun of arkhein “to be the first;” see archon). The sense of “place where public records and historical documents are kept” in English is from 1640s.

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Julian Assange took the stage at the Oslo Freedom Forum and outlined how this control of history is carried on in the digital age: He who controls the Internet servers controls the intellectual record of mankind, and by controlling that, controls our perception of who we are, and by controlling that, controls what laws and regulations we make in society. […] When Assange was once asked to describe what exactly he does in life, he answered, “I am an activist, journalist, software programmer, expert in cryptography, specialized in systems designed to protect human rights defenders.”

-  Nozomi Hayase , Imprisoned Light Of Our Civilization That Kindled The Heart Of Democracy In Defense of Julian Assange, ed. by Tariq Ali and Margaret Kunstler

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Assange is one of those rare contemporary political figures to adopt a truly global perception of the world. In all my public discussions with Assange, I was always struck by his ability to take a global perspective on the world, and his consistent capacity to think that whatever is happening in Great Britain is no more important than events in South Africa, Ecuador, Yemen, or Russia.

-   Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, Julian Assange For The Future In Defense of Julian Assange, ed. by Tariq Ali and Margaret Kunstler

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CARELESS ARR(CH)IVISTE

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careless (adj.)

Old English carleas “free from anxiety; unconcerned,” from care (n.) + -less; a compound probably from Proto-Germanic (compare Old Norse kærulauss “quit, free”). Original senses extinct by mid-17c. (now in care-free); main modern meaning “not paying attention, inattentive, not taking due care” is attested by 1560s (in carelessly). Meaning “done or said without care, unconsidered” is from 1650s.

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arriviste (n.)

“a pushy, ambitious person,” 1901, from French arriviste, from arriver “to arrive” (see arrive). The notion is of a person intent on “arriving” at success or in society.

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Like Holder, [Dianne] Feinstein refused to accept Julian Assange’s deserved First Amendment protections. “He is no journalist. He is an agitator intent on damaging our government, whose policies he happens to disagree with, regardless of who gets hurt.”

-  Kevin Gosztola, Wikileaks and the Democrats In Defense of Julian Assange, ed. by Tariq Ali and Margaret Kunstler

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The National Review (4/12/19) declared him a “petty, biased, hostile foreign actor”; CNN (4/11/19) described him as an activist, not a journalist, demanding he “face justice.” Fox News (4/12/19) also labelled him an activist, one who is using journalism as a “fig leaf for his reckless conduct.”

-  Alan MacLeod, The Media Cheer Assagenge’s Arrest In Defense of Julian Assange, ed. by Tariq Ali and Margaret Kunstler

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PERSONA #2 - THE COURAGEOUS REVELATOR IN A CAUTIOUS WORLD

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COURAGEOUS REVELATOR

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