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Comment by MarcScott | Hacker News Reader

I think that patriotism is a very powerful motivation in the actions of potential whistleblowers.

Previous generations had the Nazis and then the Soviets as the 'enemy' and they were tangible opponents. Potential whistleblowers might have been able to convince themselves that they were acting for the greater good, and kept themselves quiet.

The new 'enemy' are the terrorists, and they are neither particularly tangible or visible. It is not so easy to convince yourself you are acting for the greater good in these circumstances.

In actuality, the reverse happens. Snowden's patriotism convinced him that the actions of the NSA could not be justified as 'greater goods', and so he became a whistleblower.

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It's the double-edged nature of imaginary threats: you can invoke them to justify pretty much anything (invasive airport searches? Al Qaeda! invasive net censorship? Paedophiles!), but the number of people actually believing the bogeymen exist gets lower and lower every time you use them.

Isn't the saying, to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic?

By rights the Marines should have been kicking the NSA's doors in.

Why would the Marines do that though? The NSA is the ones telling them whose doors to kick down in Iraq and Afghanistan, as opposed to the normal 2006 routine of getting blown up every convoy by an IED.

Probably not actually; the NSA isn't big on HUMINT.

And because no-one wants to win a war against a repressive political ideology and come home to find more of the same?

Kicking in doors: something you'd totally never see in a repressive political ideology.

Funny they couldn't tell them Iraq did not have WMD when it mattered.

I seem to recall that's exactly what the Intelligence Community did tell the Prez, was that the public claims were all out of proportion to what the intel community knew, or even has hints at knowing. But of course Saddam threatened his Poppy and off we went...

But just think of the bright side, if we accept as true the claims of those using the Arab Spring erupting from Manning's diplomatic cable leaks, that it's all worth it if we get more democracies in the end, then I suppose all's well that ends well.

Mind, I don't personally agree with that but apparently I've been the idiot here the whole time. :)

The 'Arab Spring' is called a bit early in my opinion, chances are that it will be an Autumn.

Kicking the first stone of an avalanche downhill is easy but there is no way of knowing when the stones will stop rolling and if the new configuration is a favourable one and what the damage incurred along the way is.

Also, if newer generations are more independently minded, i.e. less influenced by patriotism and the like, then I guess they are likely to support a David over a Goliath. Pressuring people like Assange and Snowden is just making them into historic figureheads.

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