That Snowden Guy

I visited the folks, and after the standard maint-type duties the Mum went for a nap and the Dad and I had a small Tequila, and he asked me ”What do you think about this Snowden character.”

I must admit that it took me a short while to organize my thoughts, but I came up with “what he did was illegal and right”.

And even that's not quite right. The guy was a contractor for a company doing contract work for the NSA, was never vetted nor was he ever sworn to keep secrets. Big fail NSA.

.But consider further. Had he been (as a civilian contractor with the NSA) bound to that straitjacket of regulation, would those regulations have been binding? Were it to have come to light in other circumstances would he have been allowed to plead “I was just following orders?”

I don't think so. Humiliating as it may be, the disclosure that the US Government has been spying on all and sundry, foreign and domestic, but mostly the other party is VERY FUCKING IMPORTANT.

We now know that these our former masters are not worthy of the trust we allowed, nay, forced upon them. I use the word “masters” advisedly. We the people through want of diligence or misguided trust made them into our masters to save us from un-named and undescribed evil enemies. We meant well. We had the best of intentions. We fucked up.

The problem now is what to do. Slam the burning barn door? Allow the intercepts to trickle out at politically expedient times? Promise double pinkie swear never to do it again? Encourage new crypto tech? Shove the genie back into the bottle?

Tell you the truth? I got no damn idea. You can't know how much it hurts me to admit that. Normally I can come up with a plan, a concept, an idea that would work, but right here right now, I'm drawing a blank. And I weep.I