O Brave New World

When Edward Snowden leaked classified information about massive government spying to the citizenry of the US and the rest of the world alike, the resulting phenomenon was not a consciousness to our current state of affairs as much as it was an opportunity to become conscious of them. The facts are being laid out before us and irrefutable evidence of government spying is now within the bounds of a Google search. Snowden did more than simply foster a sliver of transparency in the US government; he presented us with the choice of either ceding to the necessity of mega-surveillance in today’s world or taking hold of the thread we’ve been offered and unraveling the cocoon in which we’ve been enmeshed.

An extraordinary number of Americans have gripped the thread and are marching with it all the way to Washington. How noble that in a country of and for the people, what unites us in strife is a threat to the fundamental laws of that very ideal. These laws belong to us, and as such it is our duty to defend their austerity. Who chooses to shed this onus can have no semblance of accountability, and who bears it must preclude the idea of civil defiance, and redefine it as civil duty. Presented with this dichotomy, this red pill or blue pill, many have allowed themselves to feel anger and be instilled with the passion that drives a citizenry to activism. Those calling to Restore the Fourth Amendment have officiated these grievances and condemned the actions of those responsible.

            We forsake the Orwellian postulation of Room 101, a place reserved for each citizen’s specific and most private fears that are exploited by their government’s ability to survey every communication. When information cannot travel with indemnity it is doomed to stagnate. It is lost to the ages and can only be recovered by the agitation of those who think freely. We have been implored to agitate and face our Brave New World with a new kind of bravery; that which takes place before an unwelcome audience.

@Restore_the4th