Re:Snowden Sees Some Victories, from a Distance
by jordigh on Wednesday May 20, 2015 @11:00AM
(#9576751)
> specifically, the general precedent of allowing state secrets to be leaked without severe punishment seems harmful to any nation state.
And is it also harmful to the citizens of that nation state?
What are our rulers doing that they don't want us to know about? Why should we not know everything that they are doing?
Re:Snowden Sees Some Victories, from a Distance
by dimino on Wednesday May 20, 2015 @11:06AM
(#9576796)
There's no way to notify your population of an action without also notifying your enemies of that action. No argument exists, to my knowledge, that a nation-state can be successful without hiding some information from other nation-states, and therefore from its people, given my first sentence.
It's one reason we elect representatives, in fact.
Re:Snowden Sees Some Victories, from a Distance
by jordigh on Wednesday May 20, 2015 @01:48PM
(#9577917)
How about the nation state stops having secrets that are making enemies for itself?
Re:Snowden Sees Some Victories, from a Distance
by dimino on Wednesday May 20, 2015 @02:15PM
(#9578099)
Considering there has never been a time in human history where a nation state has not had any opposition from other nation states, I suspect your suggestion is literally impossible.
Re:Snowden Sees Some Victories, from a Distance
by rorykoehler on Thursday May 21, 2015 @07:12AM
(#9581929)
I guess what you are saying is that nation states are not a good governing structure for progress, into the future? Who are our enemies? The enemies of my country are not necessarily my personal enemies. In fact I quite like many people who come from 'enemy' territories. There is a disconnect between the reality I experience in my everyday life and the one put forward but my/our government/s.
It makes sense to me that the default reaction to the release of state secrets is that of disapproval. From there, we can of course move further away from acceptance or closer to it depending on the specific scenario, but most folks aren't taking a close look at Snowden -- I'd even argue that they probably don't need to. What matters here is the info he released, not really Snowden specifically.