There are so few people who actually are awake enough to see the reasons to be afraid, the reason to feel outrage, to see opportunities to do the right thing. Those are the people capable of becoming cowards or heroes. Some of them can't help it. They find themselves in a job where they see something very wrong happening. They tell their boss, who does nothing, or who retaliates. So they tell their boss's boss, who does nothing, or retaliates. Or they know that telling their boss, who is part of the problem will do nothing but cost them their job. So they blow the whistle. They put their life on the line.
It is so easy to see wrong in the world and rationalize not blowing the whistle. I have a family to support and can't afford to lose my job. They could blackball me from other jobs. They could accuse me of horrible thing-- like being crazy, or a traitor or a thief or a spy. This is the modus operandi of the people who come down on whistle-blowers.
Sociopaths know how to play the game when they are near to being outed. They pre-empt the whistleblower and tell the boss that the person about to blow the whistle has some flaws, is perhaps disgruntled or a trouble-maker-- so as to marginalize or neutralize him or her when he or she comes forward.
The truly brave come forward anyway. I was going to say they take the risk of retaliation, but it is more a certainty. They accept the reality that they will face retaliation. it doesn't take many whistleblowers to make waves. Look at the tidal waves Bradley Manning and Ed Snowden unleashed. They are still reverberating. Whistleblowers are the opposite of sociopaths. They can't help but do the right thing and protect other people, whereas sociopaths exploit, control and hurt other people as a part of their very nature.
So, I am writing to you. You are in a position, probably not too high up, where you have access to information about wrong-doing. Before you take action, check out sites like http://www.whistleblower.org to get some handle on what to consider, in terms of your options and the potential consequences of your actions. But know, that simply considering becoming a whistleblower takes courage. Know that the wounds you experience may never heal. But also know that it will take heroic whistleblowers who, with eyes wide open, see the reason to fear, experience the fear, understand the potential consequences and then take action.
If the world of whistleblowers endorse "sainthood" for those who, through their promethean efforts, cast light, and broke open the sky, exposing wrongs that led to great changes, one might even say, engaging in miraculous healing, then the whistleblower saints would include Daniel Ellsberg, Bradley Manning and Ed Snowden,
If a person is an artist, it is not a choice. It is a need that must be fulfilled. I think that could be the case for whistleblowers. The need to right wrongs, for some, is so strong it must be acted upon. I wonder if there's a way to amplify that feeling. Julian Assange created Wikileaks to make it easier for whisteblowers to get their truths out to the many. Perhaps there are ways to strengthen the feeling of urgency to right wrongs. People like Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill frame the narratives in ways that make whistleblowers feel noble and honorable.
One thing you can do if you are not in the position to be a whistleblower is to express your discontent with the vile media lowlifes who attack whistleblowers-- people like Meet the Press's David Gregory, Obamabots on MSNBC, corpatriots (people who are loyal to the corporate united states of america) on FOX. Make noise about them. Tell the networks they are so despicable you change the channel when they show up.
Get uncomfortable by shaking people out of their media-induced hypnotic state of ignorant bliss. They won't like it. They'll shoot back at you with the bullish they've been fed by the MSM. Do it anyway.
Do you, because of your job, see wrongs happening? Keeping silent is the easy thing to do. Speaking out is really hard. It is the heroic thing to do.
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