Edward Snowden revealed some government secrets, but due to the nature of these secrets, I believe that this act makes him a hero rather than a traitor. He revealed to the world that everything they do or look at on the internet is constantly being watched and recorded by the government. Some people now think of him as a traitor, but I think that this was important for people to know since it is an invasion of their privacy. This is eerily similar to the way that the characters live in the book “1984”. Every move they make is being watched by the government on telescreens. In the TED Talk, Snowden says, “People should be able to pick up the phone and to call their family, people should be able to send a text message to their loved ones, people should be able to buy a book online, they should be able to travel by train, they should be able to buy an airline ticket without wondering about how these events are going to look to an agent of the government, possibly not even your government years in the future, how they're going to be misinterpreted and what they're going to think your intentions were” (Snowden). He’s talking about how people can not do simple things like send text messages to loved ones without being watched, and he thinks that this is not right. In “1984”, they are so used to being watched by the government that no one seems to really be opposed to it. However, it is clear that the protagonist, Winston, is not always happy about it and the novel states, “Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing” (Orwell 5). With similar intentions, Snowden talked about his beliefs on the matter and said, “Journalism is not a crime, communication is not a crime, and we should not be monitored in our everyday activities” (Snowden). The people in the novel would probably think in this manner as well if there wasn’t great punishment for those thoughts. Snowden ended off his talk by saying, “we don't have to give up our privacy to have good government” (Snowden). This is a very knowledgeable thing to say and although in “1984” people do have to give up their privacy, neither the characters in the book nor people in the real world who wish to use the internet should have to in order to comply with their government.
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December 2022
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