How do you say “K.I.S.S.” in Arabic?

A few weeks ago the disclosure of hundred of thousands of Wikileaks files were seen as the herald of a new era in public life: We suddenly became familiar to obscure intrigues, secret deals, embarrassing profiles….etc. etc. The message was that from now on, any politician should be conscious that the expiration date of any “Top Secret” label is closer than ever. “History will judge” became suddenly a rather anachronistic slogan, Present and History became one.

That being said and despite a personal deep respect for freedom of speech and transparency in public life, I got somehow the feeling that Wikileaks became a sort of “Wiki Miss”. The overwhelming quantity of sophisticated information aimed to she light on bad weeds turned to a sort of “the trees that hide the forest” of reality. The on going events in the Middle East were the definitive confirmation for that feeling.

The “wood” as I call it is a synonymous for simple principles and ideas simple and deep at once: For example we all know that Honesty is a virtue, even if we don´t even know exactly why. The same goes with our innate distaste for oppression: The desire for freedom is stronger than any tyranny, brutal force or systematic brainwashing. It can take years, decades, and even centuries but in the end the desire for a better life is stronger than anything else. That simple understanding was the big miss of Wiki Leaks. Or is too trivial that we sometimes forget its validity….

The wood suddenly appeared in the Desert: First they took Tunisia, then they took Cairo, as I am writing these phrases Bahrain is under siege, Lybia is burning …. And who knows who´s next. These events took everyone by surprise: Politicians, Markets models, Dynasties, Swiss Bankers … and even Wikileaks was not able to tell us anything about it. Trees and more trees…. The wood remained obscure.

Who ever adopts the wood vision will not be surprised when millions “suddenly” say “Enough!” and get out to the streets, or even risk their life for something they never knew (most of the population in these countries never knew other regime than tyranny). I would even say that whoever applies that principle will find any “Leak” or confidential information just as a detail, a small tree surrounded by the wood of reality.

That way of thinking is known as the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) . Watch out! That principle is not an encouragement for oversimplification or triviality, it´s just an attempt to but reminder that to too many questions and concerns can be summarized into few and simple principles. Although we are dealing with an English acronym , its seems that it got a good translation to Arabic. Better put , the principle does not need any translation as it is understood by any human being.

On Wikileaks and Beyond

To be honest, the Wikileaks revelations are not such a big deal. Here and there you can find some interesting detail, but as far I as I´ve noticed, there are not really amazing revelations, just a lot of personal observations and a lot of gossip, although I do really hope that no one will get physically hurt from the information revealed. Thus and besides the legal aspects, why there is so much anger with the filtrations? I will try to answer that question with a small personal anecdote.

A few years ago a friend of mine gave me a valuable advice to avoid the common and quite unpleasant anxiety before any important meeting or interview:“ Remember, if you want to stay calm , try to imagine the interviewer in the rest room...” . I replied to my friend that pornography or sexual kinky preferences are not among my favorites hobbies ..... : “Hey, just imagine a human being ...alone, disarmed from all the status symbols, naked and fragile like you and me. That´s the main point of the “therapy”... ”. Since I had no choice, I made use of that advice which eventually helped me to stay calm, though the job finally went to someone with less imagination.... How this little story is related to the last weeks 250,000 documents Wikileaks filtrations?

Human beings cannot be dominated by brute and naked power alone, so any regime or command relation relies upon a “soft” power multipliers which includes myths, legends, etc. all of them normally well hidden behind the veil of ignorance. That dominance tool depends on the level of ignorance or consciousness of their subject. The humanization of the powerful guys, as I did in my job interview, isolates the genuine base of dominance relation ( interviewer vs. Job seeker) but also brings the relation to the human arena, with its constraints, needs and weaknesses.

Thus, the subversive ingredient of Wikileaks is the opportunity to watch, almost in real time how the real game of Power is played behind the veil of the Myth . The documents tell us the degree of the nakedness of the King, as the wide public becomes aware that behind the big phrases, the military parades, the closed summits, the expensive suits or PR campaigns there are just normal and rather petty human beings that apparently (!) do not deserve sooo much respect. No, they don´t...

It is not a coincidence that political power for the major part of the history was closely related to religion and Myths. Great Conquerors, Big Kings, City Founders were generally part of a Divine genealogy. The most remote version is the ruler himself as Divinity, a version somehow softened later when the rulers were nominated by the clergy or were themselves the head of the religious clergy. The myth, the close tie between the human being and the upper spheres was always there and even in Modern time we can find a softened version ( augmented by TV and the other mass media).

So, the service Wikileaks offered goes beyond the information itself , it adds to the understanding that the big fish are very human, even a bit stinking .... So we, the normal guys should develop a critic attitude toward Living Legends and their spoke persons.