Now that the Washington crowd has found another way to beat up Obama over The Affordable Care Act, the Edward Snowden spy thriller has retreated into the obscure shadows where spooks, agents, and proprietors of "black bag jobs" reside as an unfinished national conversation. With the newest revelation of a shadow listening agenda on even friendly world leaders we can all once again relish the flavor of equality as leveled citizens in United States, where all are subjects of a huge national security apparatus which treats people as little children needing to be electronically chaperoned and untrustworthy of honest transparent governance.
The nation discovered a bit too late the truth behind the deep dark traditions of unchecked authority of J. Edgar Hooverings, where under the color of Cold War fear of reds an era of illegal and malicious maligning used to destroy patriotic dissent, activism, unionizing, social equality and a youth free speech movement was ushered in. It took the courageous and self-sacrificing of Daniel Ellsberg who leaked The Pentagon Papers42 years ago to shift the national consciousness about government untruths. The nation survived, The Pentagon Papers went on to become a best seller, but the lies, spies, and unsavory surveillance continued in the shadows to mature into a world we are only now beginning to comprehend. Metadata mining sounds so cool and innocent. High-speed, high-resolution, high-on-drones and the intergalactic intertwined net is no longer a spy web of the future.
I honor the revelations brought forth through Snowden's actions. But what effect is his living in the shadows of a birdcage under asylum allegedly working a new job in Russia having on the discussion about government secrecy? If he were to "Daniel Ellsberg" this process would it be better? Will there be another non-fiction spy thriller best seller and if so, will it be catalogued in the "Whistle Blower" or the "Traitor" section of the Library of Congress?