Pale Freedom Gangly Julian fills the frame of the French windows leading onto the tiny embassy balcony. Trademark Albino bob now shaved to short-back-and-sides. Pale skin and a soft mouth. Ever-so slightly sibilant speech. Assange’s statement is framed by reference to legendary libertarian struggles: the world is watching – Chicago, 1968; freedom of speech and the American Declaration of Independence. Appealing to Obama to ‘do the right thing’, he evokes both civil rights activism and Spike Lee’s world-weary re-make of it. But the resonance for Assange comes from none of these. Instead he echoes the new compulsion to make a spectacle of ourselves. His Wikileaks observes the principle that manifesto ergo sum and applies it to the state. Unthinkingly.