Being a whistleblower is, on a personal level, very damaging. Telling a group of people more powerful than you to go fuck themselves while you tell everyone else about the secrets they don't want you to isn't something that you are going to get away with.
And yet whistleblowers are critical for good democracy, sometimes they're the only way we will find out what is truly going on. I can't say I'm surprised to find that governments are tracking pretty much everything online, I guess I always assumed they were, irrespective of their denials, but it's nice to get some confirmation of this.
The courage of Edward Snowden is impressive. Here's a man with a great income, a comfortable life, and he chooses to throw that away so that we can find out that our private information is indeed being tracked. No doubt, every little thing he has done in his life will soon be blown up into huge crimes to help divert attention from the information he has provided. Such is the lot of the whistleblower.
Full credit to http://www.guardian.co.uk/ for having the nerve to push this so hard. It is with some disappointment, though little surprise, that I see the Australian press very much underplaying the story. They give more emphasis to when Facebook change their website or Google posts an unusual doodle than they have to this. Their big emphasis the last few days has been the on again off again leadership machinations of the Australian Labor Party!
Well, it is news as entertainment and that's just not entertaining enough. I've barely seen a peep bout the topic on my social networking feeds. Nor have any of my friends or family contacted me seeking my views. All signs of a general lack of interest.
We humans aren't always very good at discussing issues that matter.
