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Total surveillance is a deeply
anti social principle because
rights are not just individual,
they’re collective, and what may
not have value to you today may
have value to an entire
population, an entire people, an
entire way of life tomorrow. And
if you don’t stand up for it,
then who will?
I don't want to live in a world
where everything that I say,
everything I do, everyone I talk
to, every expression of
creativity or love or friendship
is recorded.
The NSA has the greatest
surveillance capabilities that
we've ever seen in history. The
real problem is that they're
using these capabilities to make
us vulnerable to them and then
saying, 'well I have a gun
pointed at your head. I'm not
going to pull the trigger. Trust
me.'
Being called a traitor by Dick
Cheney [Former Vice President of
the United States] is the
highest honor you can give an
American.
Arguing that you don't care
about the right to privacy
because you have nothing to hide
is no different than saying you
don't care about free speech
because you have nothing to say.
Seeing someone in the position
of James Clapper - the Director
of National Intelligence -
baldly lying to the public
without repercussion is the
evidence of a subverted
democracy. The consent of the
governed is not consent if it is
not informed.
A child born today will grow up
with no conception of privacy at
all. They’ll never know what it
means to have a private moment
to themselves an unrecorded,
unanalyzed thought. And that’s a
problem because privacy matters;
privacy is what allows us to
determine who we are and who we
want to be.
The conversation occurring today
will determine the amount of
trust we can place both in the
technology that surrounds us and
the government that regulates
it. Together we can find a
better balance, end mass
surveillance, and remind the
government that if it really
wants to know how we feel,
asking is always cheaper than
spying.
I did not reveal any US
operations against legitimate
military targets. I pointed out
where the NSA has hacked
civilian infrastructure such as
universities, hospitals, and
private businesses because it is
dangerous.
Bathtub falls and police
officers kill more Americans
than terrorism, yet we've been
asked to sacrifice our most
sacred rights for fear of
falling victim to it.
There have been times throughout
American history where what is
right is not the same as what is
legal. Sometimes to do the right
thing you have to break the law.
The government and intelligence
services of the United States of
America have attempted to make
an example of me, a warning to
all others who might speak out
as I have. I have been made
stateless and hounded for my act
of political expression.
Unfortunately, the mainstream
media now seems far more
interested in what I said when I
was 17 or what my girlfriend
looks like rather than, say, the
largest program of suspicionless
surveillance in human history.
LIFE DESIGN, CHARACTER
The true measurement of a
person's worth isn't what they
say they believe in, but what
they do in defense of those
beliefs. If you're not acting on
your beliefs, then they probably
aren't real.
It is we who infuse life with
meaning through our actions and
the stories we create with them.
And history also shows that
seemingly ordinary people who
are sufficiently resolute about
justice can triumph over the
most formidable adversaries.
ABOUT SNOWDEN
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June
21, 1983) is an American former
technical contractor for the
United States National Security
Agency (NSA) and a former
employee of the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) who
leaked details of several
top-secret U.S. and British
government mass surveillance
programs to the press. His
disclosures revealed numerous
global surveillance programs,
many run by the NSA and the Five
Eyes Intelligence Alliance with
the cooperation of
telecommunication companies and
European governments. Snowden
came to international attention
after stories based on the
material appeared in The
Guardian and The Washington
Post. Further disclosures were
made by other publications
including Der Spiegel and The
New York Times.
In September 2022, Snowden was
granted Russian citizenship by
President Vladimir Putin.
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Mindfulness
Happiness
– It's All In Our Own Hands |
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