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Edward Snowden's Ideal Democracy

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For the past decade, democracies have been idealized as the superior political system, especially by the Western world and therefore lack ambition to improve. Since the tensions between non-democratic and democratic states have disappeared after the fall of most communist countries, the “West” and democracy was perceived as the superior, “winning” ideology. In my opinion, this perception has led to an irrational respect as well as blind obedience to political leaders. Therefore free hand is given to democratic states and their leaders as they find world-wide support. Whistle-blowers, leaking secret information about unethical actions of governments and organizations, are modern “institutions” setting necessary limits to the actions of political actors in the western world. In order to reinstall democratic means, such as the right to self-determination and the power of the people, it is necessary for nation and every individual to be a part of the reinstallation of transparency (Cogen, 49). Measurements have …show more content…

Snowden is called a whistle-blower which is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “a person who informs on a person or organization regarded as engaging in an unlawful or immoral activity”. Although this definition highlights the fact that he revealed the potentially unlawful and immoral activity conducted by the National Security Agency, some critics perceive Snowden to be a traitor and therefore thoroughly un-American. These recent events, such as the revealing of Mrs. Merkel 's phone tapping, have torn the world and started a never ending discussion: was Edward Snowden 's release of secret and/or classified information to the general public a betrayal on the state or a blessing to

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In the article “FBI v. Apple Is Really About Edward Snowden” by Ted Rall, Rall speaks about the recent conflict between the U.S. government and the electronics company Apple. He first summarizes the recent conflict, in which Apple has refused to give the FBI the code to unlock the phone of Syed Farook, the head of the San Bernardino mass shooting. The reason behind Apple not releasing the code, says Rall, is that with this code the iPhones of many other people can also be accessed, not just the one needed. Yet here in this article Rall is saying that this is much different due to one man, and that is Edward Snowden. Rall states how a few years ago, Americans would have undeniably been against what Apple is currently refusing to do,

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As Edward Snowden

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For example, Edward Snowden exposed the National Security Agency for eavesdropping on Americans and people around the world, despite the possibility of being arrested and charged with heavy crimes. " So, what did the leaks tell us? First, they confirmed that the U.S. government, without obtaining any court warrants, routinely collects the phone logs of tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, of Americans, who have no links to terrorism whatsoever,"(Source 3). The question is who is truly at fault? The government for doing that or Snowden for ratting them out to the public about

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505 Words | 3 Pages

Through this phenomenon, muckrakers and whistle-blowers have come to the forefront to provide the people with the information that is so often gated away. No other person in the world is more famous for this in recent memory than Edward Snowden. Snowden, former NSA associate, leaked thousands of documents pertaining to the surveillance of American citizens. This broke numerous laws and turned Snowden in a criminal. This transgression was deemed so horrible by the government that he had to flee the United States if he valued his freedom.

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With Edward Snowden's NSA leaks, this issue was brought into relief. Was he full of moral superiority over a gray issue, or was he "that most awkward and infuriating of creatures-- a man of conscience," as John Cassidy wrote in his article "Why Edward Snowden is a Hero." Because, while Jeffrey Toobin wrote in "Edward Snowden is No Hero" that Snowden's leak was cemented in grandiose narcissism over an issue American citizens should have already digested, wasn't it after his leak that there arose an uproar over the NSA activities, which inevitably placed a modicum of agency back in the hands of the American people? I still wonder whether my perspective would be the same had Snowden released files which did more lasting harm to national security. But in that case, would that activism now be violent, instead of

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285 Words | 2 Pages

Snowden leaked documents that exposed phone and Internet corporations, like Verizon, handing over daily phone records of unsuspected

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1814 Words | 8 Pages

Voting is perhaps the biggest political participation and the key indicator for democratic health of a political institution. However, because of political corruption there is a negative relation to democratic electoral participations, so as the corruption increases the percentages of people who go to the polls decrease (Stockemer, 2009). As the public corruption rises it diminishes the public’s trust and may cultivate generations that will hold low levels of trust for government officials. Therefore, there should be an act for governmental transparency to the public, as transparency is the fundament to democracy, because it would be able to reveal corruptions.

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Throughout this paper, this material will be further explained and examined through several different ideas and articles. The first idea that will be discussed, regarding the principles presented above, can be demonstrated through the article, The Right of “Free Suffrage” (1776). This article

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Snowden, who was a computer systems contractor, worked for the National Security Agency and revealed to the public how the American Government was spying on its own citizens and foreigners. Snowden was committed to the truth which allowed him to reason and understand the difference between what is right and what is legal. Snowden was convinced that the truth requires an individual to do the right thing and not necessarily what is legal. However, doing the right thing could sometimes require an individual to break the law.

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Edward Snowden was the former National Security Agency or "spy". Despite his job flaws, Snowden was able to expose the government. By exposing the government, he told the citizens of United States that the government is stalking anyone through text messages, emails, and the location of the phones. Although he broke the law by stealing confidential information, his actions of exposing the government was because he believed that people had a right to know all the things the government were hiding away from them. Edward Snowden has the right to be called a hero because he exposed the government in a good way, defended the amendment to privacy, and because he defended the people while risking his own life and his own job.

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Is Snowden an enemy for informing the world of how the US keeps tags on them, or is he a hero for letting the American people know that their 4th amendment is being violated? Some can argue that America’s enemies didn’t need Snowden to inform them, groups such as al-Qaeda have long since figured that out. Because it is almost certain that enemies already know about what Snowden revealed, the only thing he did wrong was violate his oath, and the NSA’s oath of secrecy trumps his belief that the NSA’s activities were an unconstitutional threat to the American people. Even though the NSA’s oath trumps Snowden’s beliefs, it does not mean that what the oath is protecting is constitutional. The National Security Agency has been keeping many people out of the dark for years about their policies.

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846 Words | 4 Pages

A few weeks later, these documents were released by The Guardian, and Edward Snowden was the reliable source. Now, people all over knew that the United States Government was spying on its own people through messages, internet searches, browser history, smart T.V’s and many many more. This case is ongoing, as he seeks asylum in other countries. This newfound information raises the question, is Mr. Snowden a traitor, or did he save us all by “blowing the whistle” to warn us about the unconstitutional collection of our private possessions protected by

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1857 Words | 8 Pages

Convincing the British In 1860 Sir Syed had written “The Faithful Mohammedans of India”. In this perform he protected Muslims and listed the name of those Muslims who stayed Faithful to the British during the rebellion. In to persuade that the British were wrong to fully fault the Muslims for the rebellion so he had written a brochure “Essay on the Causes of the Native indian Revolt”. In this he indicated the reasons for the rebellion. He informed that British were unable to understand the Indians.

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The main issue in the Snowden controversy is the conflicting rights of private individuals and the US government with regard to the use of telecommunications and the internet. There are ethical issues surrounding this controversy and the most applicable ethical approach for this case is “Ethics by Rights Approach”. As a background, the reason why US government had declared Edward Snowden a traitor is his involvement in the leaking of about 1.7 million confidential US documents, 15,000 Australian intelligence files and 58,000 British intelligence files from the National Security Agency (or NSA) to the public. These confidential information were acquired by the NSA through the PRISM program by collaborating with big internet companies such

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389 Words | 2 Pages

The Bill of Rights was added to the constitution to, protect the rights and property of the citizens of the United States of America, and limit the Government’s power over the citizens. However, in the Japanese Internment in America during World War 2 not only the Fifth Amendment was violated, but other amendments in the Bill of Rights was also violated. In addition, Amendment I, IV, VI, VII, and VII were violated during the Japanese internment. I personally feel that violation of the Amendments can still happen today to a citizen or a group of Americans.

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