(Article changed on July 22, 2013 at 14:36)
Edward Snowden is an American hero in real time. He is much more than just a story or an icon. Although mightily inconvenienced by the machinations of a government that appears to believe it possesses the authority to supersede the will of its democratic electorate, Edward Snowden is, at this moment, alive, well, and (relatively) free. It is imperative that he remain so.
It
is understandably challenging for many of us, as we go about the routine of our
everyday lives, to discern and empathize with the limitations and stresses that
must be inherent in the existence of a stranded traveler in a foreign land, his
liberty sustained only by the ironic particularity of his host country's
willingness to abide by its own laws.
But
despite its presentation in the media, Edward Snowden's dilemma is not a
spectator sport. In a media-saturated
culture where every atrocity and outrage is subject to the fickle felicities of
ratings and reader/viewer interest, we must resist the perceptual slide into
permitting Edward Snowden's monumentally consequential predicament to become
just another story on the media menu.
Many of the items available to consumers on this menu are fatally
tainted with unlabeled and unacknowledged elements that function to promote
complacency, reinforce perceptions of the incontrovertible legitimacy of all
governmental authority, and engineer the unconscious acquiescence of the
American public to the characterizations and plotlines of the authoritarian
narrative. Many of them additionally create
and promote a cynical perception of reality
- from the mundane to the truly
significant - as spectacle and entertainment.
NPR
recently made its contribution to the let's pretend/just imagine/guided
imagery journalistic genre with a
segment featuring spy-thriller author James Baldacci giving his take on an
appropriate fictional/screenwriter version of the Edward Snowden situation, titled
"What Edward Snowden the Movie Would Look Like."
(By
the way, have you visited cia.gov lately?
Next time you do, don't forget to check out the Entertainment Industry
Liaison page ...)
Baldacci's
for-public-consumption version of Edward Snowden features a young man who has
alienated everyone. He has no friends or
supporters, and he is beginning to be filled with self-doubt: Did I really do
the right thing? Baldacci's Snowden asks himself. Is it possible that I've actually committed
treason? And of course, the movie
version has a correct ending: Snowden is brought home - by
his friends at the NSA - to
stand trial. (Seriously. Who could make up Baldacci making up this stuff?)
This
defeated, regretful fictional Snowden couldn't have been more propagandistically-effective
if he actually had been created by someone working for the CeeingEyeA. (Not mentioning any names here - just
saying ...) He is the precise opposite of
the actual Edward Snowden who maintains himself in philosophical serenity,
inviolable in his assurance regarding the path that he has chosen - an
assurance that happens to be both well-grounded and quite contagious. Americans of conscience recognize and identify
with a new kind of American hero whose authenticity invalidates the stereotypes
that purveyors of patriotic correctness have long relied upon. Comparing the framed version of Baldacci's
floundering fictional character with the unassailable reality, it straightaway
becomes evident that something is very wrong
with this picture - not with Edward Snowden.
We should, however, beware of underestimating the influence of habitual thinking. Baldacci's framing makes so much sense - in
the most uncreative sense - because its glide path along the
deeply-rutted courses of mindless acquiescence, to which we all are susceptible
to some degree, points us toward the illusion of inevitability. It suggests to us, through an appeal to
carefully-crafted archetypes embedded into our national consciousness, that
anyone who challenges the American government is a traitor, and that a traitor
to America cannot avoid American justice.
This is precisely the kind of thinking that a propaganda campaign
against a government whistleblower would seek to inculcate into the general
population. And it is precisely the kind
of thinking that Americans of conscience must learn to resist and to call out.
But
Baldacci's flaccid fictions represent only one point on a wide-ranging spectrum
of guided public perception that is maintained by those who have mastered its
potential for perpetuating their tenure in effectively unchallenged positions
of power. Before we allow our thinking
to become (even more) corrupted by the evangelistic propagators of establishmentarian
fundamentalism, we would do well to stop and consider who these people actually
are. They are those who we invited into
the hallowed houses and halls of public service for the purposes of upholding
and defending the Constitution and acting as stewards, within the law, of the
business of American democracy. What
they have embarked upon instead is the perpetration of an internal, covert, incremental,
and ongoing coup d'etat for the purpose of ousting the rightful title-holders
to the powers and privileges of this nation: the American people. They are trespassers and would-be usurpers,
at best - and at worst, traitors. We do not owe them the lives and souls of our
American heroes. What we owe them are
tickets back to whatever hellholes they emerged from - not
in first-class, but in disgrace.
To
reiterate: Edward Snowden's situation is not a spectator sport.
When
he chose to travel to Hong Kong and reveal his identity as the truth-teller
whose revelations exposed the true extent of NSA surveillance, Edward Snowden risked
everything. He did this not solely for
the purpose of being able to live with his own conscience: he acted in service
to his country, for us, his countrymen. And
we have responded to his courageous and visionary act. We have signed petitions. We have written articles and posted comments
in his support. We have publicly
declared our solidarity with him. But
there is something more that we can and must do for Edward Snowden. We must be with him in spirit, in heart, in
mind, in real time. And we must maintain
within ourselves our best wishes and highest aspirations for his well-being and
his future. We owe him that.