Civil Disobedience: The Curious Case of Edward Snowden :: Civil Disobedience

More than six months after first sending shockwaves through the world, Edward Snowden is alive, not imprisoned, and still making daily headlines. A former National Security Agency contractor, Snowden was responsible for revealing to the American public the existence of enormous, secret governmental surveillance programs, tactics that irrefutably border unconstitutionality. He gave up his freedom and ultimately his way of life in revealing how the NSA was harvesting and storing global phone records and text messages, the majority sent by ordinary American citizens. Snowden voluntarily broke the law and publically took credit for his leaks, rallying behind his core belief that mass surveillance undermines the fundamental right to privacy. He felt obligated to warn his fellow countrymen that their freedom â€Å"to speak and to think and to live† was potentially being threatened, and was thus compelled to release the classified information to which he had access to, regardless of consequences. Believing that he had â€Å"done nothing wrong,† he maintains that it was absolutely necessary to inform the public that they were being victimized. While he acted alone, Snowden hopes that his actions will encourage a larger movement amongst the populace, especially other technologists, to pressure the government into reconsidering its national security platform. An essential feature of civil disobedience is nonviolence, a factor that Snowden and King similarly endorsed. Both assumed activist roles and looked to bring nationwide attention to their causes, but in no way did they promote an outbreak of violence, which they felt would prove detrimental. However, this did not stop the two from knowingly breaking the law, as each maintained that they possessed the right to defy authority due to the obvious presence of social injustice.