Hello,
I believe this is worth the read. Edward Snowden, Laura Poitras and Glenn
Greenwald from the Oscar-winning documentary CITIZENFOUR did an AMA (Ask Me
Anything) session on reddit 2 days ago.
https://np.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2wwdep/we_are_edward_snowden_laura_poitras_and_glenn/
You can see the beginnings of this dynamic today in the statements of
> government officials complaining about the adoption of encryption by major
> technology providers. The idea here isn't to fling ourselves into anarchy
> and do away with government, but to remind the government that there must
> always be a balance of power between the governing and the governed, and
> that as the progress of science increasingly empowers communities and
> individuals, there will be more and more areas of our lives where -- if
> government insists on behaving poorly and with a callous disregard for the
> citizen -- we can find ways to reduce or remove their powers on a new --
> and permanent -- basis.
>
> Our rights are not granted by governments. They are inherent to our
> nature. But it's entirely the opposite for governments: their privileges
> are precisely equal to only those which we suffer them to enjoy.
>
> We haven't had to think about that much in the last few decades because
> quality of life has been increasing across almost all measures in a
> significant way, and that has led to a comfortable complacency. But here
> and there throughout history, we'll occasionally come across these periods
> where governments think more about what they "can" do rather than what they
> "should" do, and what is lawful will become increasingly distinct from what
> is moral.
>
> In such times, we'd do well to remember that at the end of the day, the
> law doesn't defend us; we defend the law. And when it becomes contrary to
> our morals, we have both the right and the responsibility to rebalance it
> toward just ends.
>
Another comment said:
> Martin Luther King said it best in his *Letter from Birmingham County
> Jail* <http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html>
>
> "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer
> lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would
> be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a
> moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral
> responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine
> that "an unjust law is no law at all."
>
Regards,
Aslam
Received on Thu Feb 26 2015 - 18:26:54 PST