...damn
i first learned about the nsa and snowden revelations in 2015 via high school debate (lol), but since then, have only thought about surveillance on an abstract/theoretical level. and like most zoomers, privacy has always seemed like a lost cause barely worth fighting for anymore. meanwhile, snowden's firsthand story made the harms of mass surveillance so much more concrete, and the book feels like 'required reading' for people interested in ethical tech or even american geo/politics and civil liberties in general.
the book is also a case study in moral courage, and i came away with an immense amount of admiration for not only his bravery, but his intense thoughtfulness about all the possible implications of whistleblowing, to people near and far.
i saw some reviews say the first section of snowden's life story was too long, but his identity as a technologist seemed to play a huge role in both his values and, more concretely, his ability to accomplish what he did. (i also feel very personally endeared toward internet coming-of-age stories.) all the mundane details about the organizational structure and culture of the nsa were also super enlightening wrt what enabled the intelligence community's large-scale complicity.
finally, snowden is legit a good writer, and there are some really striking quotables in here:
It wasn’t that my classmates didn’t care enough to fight, it was that they couldn’t afford to: the system was designed so that the perceived cost of escalation exceeded the expected benefit of resolution.
Any elected government that relies on surveillance to maintain control of a citizenry that regards surveillance as anathema to democracy has effectively ceased to be a democracy.
(jul 7, 2021)
To reply you need to sign in.