Snowden: Privacy, Whistle-blower, Treason? That is the Question

We have strict laws whereby no one can open a letter sent via the US Postal Service without violating the sacredness of the privacy protected within that envelop. We misplaced our trust in extrapolating that the privacy we have had traditionally using such communications would happen when we used newer communication mechanisms. But somehow that same notion of privacy does not exist if you talk on the phone, use a credit card, send an email or work on a computer.

In part, it happened because, when the USA "declares war" on something (including drugs, terrorism, people, etc.) it is not just a euphemism.  It means the Constitution doesn't have to be followed anymore and there are new rules about privacy--i.e., none. We just didn't understand those were the new rules because drugs and terrorism stuff are crimes, not wars.

Mr. Snowden took us out of the naive place we settled into when thinking technology was only a friend or that it helped make our lives easier. He reminded us that our lives are not private and that we can be personally invaded in any way, at any time, by anyone (government or private sector) who wants to invade them. Even having our guns won't help protect us.

It is such an important concept to debate and fight over and preserve because without it we could not have endless choice for ourselves. But the real value of privacy, of course, depends on what you do with it provided that mere self-indulgence is not guiding our lives.

This is the paradox: The notion of privacy (and the Freedom that is the basis of it) changes from being for the pursuit of individual happiness to leading to enhanced expressions of creativity, original thought, increased productivity and an overall high quality of life.

What is Freedom For?

It is eve of Independence Day for the United States of America.  The USA sets aside the 4^th of July as a national holiday to celebrate its freedom from colonial rule and autocracy of Britain

Hundreds of years later, we, rightfully, decry a loss of freedom or privacy as a new eavesdropping, surveillance or electronic tracking technique is revealed that collects information about us as we innocently shop, drive, walk, watch TV, surf the web, talk on the phone or sit in our homes.  Or when someone tries to take away our guns.

Then the debate begins anew on what freedom is and what it takes to be free.  If these debates didn’t rise from the life, hearts, actions and spirit of humankind to be daily earned and refreshed, it would die and be replaced.

But does anyone ask, “What is freedom for?”  Sometimes that question crosses my mind when I’m curled up on the sofa watching whatever crime series or sporting event happens to be on television.

The thought should come to all our minds when ANY authority which directs, restricts or restrains conduct of human relations inhibits someone/something akin to a “universal principle” (read natural law or moral code if you wish) through coercion or more overt forces like oppression or control.  Overt force is the easier one to detect.

One cannot identify what freedom is for without not knowing what it truly is.  How does one choose a path without knowing what the options are?  Obviously, freedom means different things to everyone.

There are many legal and personal definitions of freedom.  That’s part of what makes it “universal.”  One can imagine a code with different goals, but it remains that this life is the only one anyone has.  Applying collective judgments and benchmarks makes a “principle.”

To paraphrase a Pope John Paul II comment, “Freedom is not doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”  A trite, answer, then, to “What is freedom for?” might be, “To set our own daily schedule, i.e., to read, go, say, think, do, or believe—with some terms and conditions.”

It is such an important concept to debate and fight over because without it we could not do the above things.  Freedom is passionately fought for to preserve or win endless choice for ourselves.

But the real value of freedom depends on what you do with it provided that mere self-indulgence is not guiding our lives.

This is the paradox: Freedom changes from being for the pursuit of individual happiness.  Freedom becomes being for serving one another because it leads to enhanced expressions of creativity and original thought, increased productivity and an overall high quality of life.  This definition of what freedom is for is seldom addressed in our debates or wars, hence lost.