One has to ask if he knew ahead of time the government would dog him into suicide would he have done it; he would have said yes.
People of conscience doesn't have the capacity to make their conscience obey an order to end the vigilance of that conscience. People like Aaron Schwartz and Edward Snowden and any other journalist or person of conscience just doesn't turn it off because the law is going to destroy their world. They literally separate themselves from the life they loved to enter into a state of awareness of their act of conscience.
Edward Snowden had a very comfortable life. He had a love interest. He was successful in his career. By all measures Edward Snowden should not have done what he did. Why give up everything in what many would call a senseless act of selflessness?
"Citizen Four" (click here) clearly shows a man who loved his country and for that reason he could not continue in this perverse world he found himself. The act of conscience is rather interesting. He knew the US government would not simply accept what he did and allow him to continue his life within the USA with an expression of gratitude. He knew he was facing the potential of treason which carries the penalty of death.
There is an abandonment of self when whistleblowers move into the act of exposing the ABUSE OF POWER.
There is an extreme point these people reach and there is no going back. As a matter of fact, they agonize over the fact they are living their lives as if there was nothing wrong; when everything is wrong.
No one of conscience is going to stop their actions short of whistleblowing. It will never happen. The punishment of taking an action against the power such as the USA government or a profession that is seriously in error of it's status is overwhelming. There is not a whistleblower that moves into this odd place of concern for the abuse of power for themselves. Most whistleblowers see themselves as part of the problem and/or having knowledge of the problem. They consider themselves as part of the problem if they remain quiet and within their lives defined.
Whistleblowing is a matter of morality. The person of conscience finds themselves between the life they live and a greater sense of themselves, possibly even their god or their spiritual equivalent of god.
Chelsey Mannnig is waiting in prison to be free and Julian Assange have paid dearly to maintain his freedom. Ask them whether or not their current status would have stopped them from carrying out their act of conscience. Julian Assange created Wikileaks for the explicit purpose of preventing abuse of power.
Within their acts of conscience all these modern day people found the danger to others and possibly even themselves too great to continue in the manner their lives had evolved to that point. "The Fifth Estate" (click here) clearly depicts a mission.
To state the USA has the power to oppress people of conscience is abuse of power itself.
These people are above reproach. They carried their sincere concern for others. No one will ever hear the words they did it for themselves. The lives they live after the act of conscience alone tells everyone otherwise. There is plenty of examples of whistleblowers that suffered after their act. There would be every reason to never see such acts again, but, they continue to occur over and over.
So, for the USA government to think they have a "Sword of Damocles" as an ultimate weapon against whistleblowers is a huge error in understanding the abuse of power that exists in this world. In DECIDING the USA is all powerful in setting examples of people's lives 'gone wrong' so it would never happen again; it is missing the very CHARACTER of the government that causes the act in the first place.
It is not the whistleblower that has to learn a lesson. It is the abuse of power by the USA government/military that needs to learn a lesson. The USA never stops to realize exactly what caused these EXCEPTIONAL people to move into the direction they did.
Edward Snowden and Julian Assange should be allowed clemency and return home. I think the evidence is clear to their actions and the morality. It is the USA that needs to accept responsibility and get out of it's own way. These people are not spies or double agents. They were doing a job and they could not continue for the damage they committed or had the potential to commit to humanity.
The USA is not a perfect place or a perfect country. Comes to terms with that.
