This is the most clear headed comment I've yet seen about the (potential) problem posed by wikileaks and other organizations that seek to subvert established institutions:
. . . could we please pause for a moment amidst all of our technological triumphalism to reflect on the potential downside to all of this antinomian empowerment of the individual? The libertarian imagination, amply furnished with metaphors of invisible hands and spontaneously generated order, is thrilled by such technological empowerment. What could be better than giving every human being on the planet the capacity to subvert all established authorities and institutions, private or public, tyrannical or meritocratic? What would be better, I submit, is lucid self-awareness about how much our liberty depends on the existence of stable, functioning institutions to protect it against those who long to extinguish it in the name of sundry anti-liberal theological and ideological projects.
The framers of the Constitution would agree with this sentiment. It is the very point made in Federalist #10 and helps us understand, in a contemporary context, the dangers that passionate majorities angry at existing institutions, can pose to free societies. Not that stable societies always respect or maintain individual freedom -- they don't always -- or that occasional challenges to the status quo are not worthwhile -- they are in fact necessary in order for societies to evolve and for freedom to expand. But the chaos that inevitably results when stable institutions are gleefully undermined is perhaps the greatest threat to individual freedom. Madison would certainly agree with that sentiment.
That said, institutions must be subject to challenge from time to time in order to determine whether they are in fact preserving freedom or merely maintaining existing privileges. Early efforts to expand suffrage, for example, were opposed for much the same reason. It took time for the expansion of political participation to demonstrate that it would not undermine existing institutions and lead to chaos. This was demonstrated empirically, and the same will have to be demonstrated in this case. Can free societies survive the transparency and instability that unlimited information will force on its institutions? We will see.
For educators, charged with preserving the republic, the trick will be to ensure that students will be made aware of the historical role that properly designed governing institutions and systems have played in securing liberty and not make capricious choices that can undermine them.
