Permanent Record

    Morality and national security interests are inter-meshed, yet impossible to truly reconcile. On one hand, a sense of duty can drive people to do want to protect their fellow citizens, ensure that they are safe from bad actors and can sleep easy every night. Yet, in the pursuit of this noble goal, it can prove far to easy to stumble down the slippery slope of power, justifying ever greater abuses in the name of security. And eventually there may be a time when the medicine is worse than the disease.

    No one knows this better than Edward Snowden. I understand that his autobiography, Permanent Record, has an agenda and its own angle. Actually, given the severity of the US government's smear campaign against him in the wake of the information releases. On one hand, it is understandable - he was tasked with serving the nation, however he released highly classified information, making him a traitor. On the other, he exposed the government's surveillance campaign, not just against other nations, but against its own people. 

    Abraham Lincoln, widely regarded as one of the greatest presidents the US ever, said that the government was "Of the People, by the People, for the People". It is the duty of the American state to serve in the best interest of the citizens it is meant to represent. And some may argue that this is what it takes to serve. But as Snowden points out, who among us hasn't committed a legal infraction? And when the government has all the data that you've ever created, it can, if someone in charge wants to, find a way to use it against you. There simply is no way to avoid this. Especially since there are some patently absurd laws (see this Reader's Digest article for a few chuckles). 

    Unfortunately though, the most upsetting part of this whole situation is that there is a case to be made that this is necessary. The world is a terrifying place laced with hate, anger, and danger. And until the day finally comes when we all lay down our arms and embrace one another as brothers, this may be the only path forward.

"To refuse to claim your privacy is actually to cede it [...] there is simply no way to ignore privacy."