Islands of resilience

In the past few years we have seen an annoying number of occasions where upon politicians in public office congratulate each other and themselves on the demonstration of courage in the measures they announce and the impact those promise to bear to their electorates and communities.

Whereas I can appreciate long and hard invisible back office work pursuing some belief in a national interest unlikely to be met with gratitude by large populations unaware of some longer term impact, to associate any such actions as courage is widely exagerated, unless there might be some threat to life or professional integrity, which is hardly the case in most civilized and democratic societies.

I would not want to think of Edward Snowden as hero, nor as a traitor but will grant his action to disclose the PRISM programme as courageous in a very modern sense.  I see truth in the apparent comfortable private life and promissing professional career he had when he made his individual choice to discontinue upholding the code of conduct he will have been bound by, especially as he will have been (made) timely aware of the plausible consequences.  No more island feeling for him.

Frankly I see no motive for anyone to be shocked either by taking note of some government controlled intelligence set up, screening and monitoring communications and when this is in the USA also see no reason for surprise that private entreprises are tied in, but then again I am fortunate enough to live and work in an environment of relative democracy, transparency and justice in comparison with most other people on this planet.  After all, in the US and certainly not in Europe I think we would now not want to debate on how governments should come to spend more on cyber intelligence, exlusively paid for by public means.

That does not withstand that any organisation, public or private, should have their act together at all times and if caught and challenged, that will just be another tough bite to take on board while seeking evolution otherwise.

I recall Jon Stewart's show sarcasticly analysing what one can do in one's virtual life after some US governor had been caught browsing porn sites on the internet.  One proposed solution was to outsmart whomever whistleblows you or, my preferred option, just become a better person in real life as well and then you will have nothing to worry about.