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
@Restore_the4th
