Numerous interviews with close associates of Assange and others who have dealt with him extensively paint a picture of a man who can be brilliant and charming one minute but insufferable the next, who has alienated many of those around him and whose erratic personality risks undermining his mission.
Jack Shafer, press critic for the online magazine Slate, wrote that Assange "possesses such an ego-swollen head it's a miracle that he can walk without toppling over."
On a personal and political level, however, he is a complex, volatile, sometimes inscrutable, often difficult man, according to people who have worked with him.
German publisher, Domscheit-Berg says about Assange: "It is not for nothing that many who have quit refer to him as a 'dictator.' He thinks of himself as the autocratic ruler of the project and believes himself accountable to no-one."
To his most ardent admirers -- and there still are many, including the hackers who have launched repeated cyber attacks on his perceived enemies -- even if Assange's activities and personality is flawed, his achievements and brilliance should earn him forbearance.
Suelette Dreyfus, the Australian author whose book on hackers Assange helped to research, put it this way: "It does take a certain type of strength and backbone to do (what Assange does), and these are pretty rare qualities because the risks are pretty high."
To talk truth we need courage.
To abide by it we require a stoicism.
To lay bare the truth , what do we need? Stern complacency, strict faith and an invincibility, which has made Assange different from the crowd.
I was thinking INTJ but Sarah brings up a good point for INTP. All I keep thinking is 'what is his angle on this?' 'what does he have to gain?'
If he was an INTJ I believe he would have made some demands and the information may not have ever been released. I have no clue what his goal is at this time, so just going by the information at hand, it seems like his main goal is just to expose the truth. Wanting to expose the truth is something I believe many INTPs wouldn't mind doing. Also I've read he is a former hacker. Hackers are typically more INTP than INTJ. INTJs are better at building software and systems, whereas INTPs are more apt to finding loopholes and exploiting the system.
I was thinking INTJ at first but now I'm learning toward INTP until we find out more.
Courage is contagious
"Whoever the terrorists are here, it’s not us," Assange told MSNBC. He also had harsh words about presidential hopefuls Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin. “It’s just another idiot trying to make a name for himself." That might be the quote of the year.
What do we want to know anyhow? We want to know how he did it. This riddle remains. And this riddle is inseparable from the man: charismatic and threatening in equal measure, leaving even the fiercest critics unable to casually disregard it—and him. Not unlike another figure on another planet in the political solar system, Sarah Palin, Assange’s opponents may hate his mission, ideology, tactics, and even appearance, but they cannot deny he has moved our on an important issue, and raised a concomitant threat. He has made us emotional: presidents, generals, mothers of soldiers serving overseas. He has made us angry, and only ever more so in proportion to his icy cool.
In his writing online, especially on Twitter, Assange is quick to lash out at perceived enemies. By contrast, on television, where he has been appearing more frequently, he acts with uncanny sang-froid. Under the studio lights, he can seem—with his spectral white hair, pallid skin, cool eyes, and expansive forehead—like a rail-thin being who has rocketed to Earth to deliver humanity some hidden truth. This impression is magnified by his rigid demeanor and his baritone voice, which he deploys slowly, at low volume.
