I don't wish to join the fervent chorus of opinion on Edward Snowden's recent act of bravery. When news stories such as these break, where the subject matter is the stuff of spy thrillers, there is a guaranteed blizzard of commentary.
The focus should be on how Americans are responding. I found two disparate news items worthy of attention. One is that sales of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four are soaring. This is encouraging. The second is that Americans are quite relaxed about encroachments on their rights and privacy, with a Washington Post/Pew poll (second link below) indicating that 56 percent of Americans find secret court orders to track telephone call records to be acceptable. Concerning email monitoring, 45 percent find it acceptable. This is discouraging.
However, the polling questions were asked in the context of fighting terrorism, which makes these percentages less surprising. Americans have always been easily frightened in matters of "national security," which sadly allows Washington dangerous latitude. Education, of course, can help fix this situation. And Orwell is a perfect place to start.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/jun/11/george-orwell-prism-big-brother-1984
http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/06/10/National-Politics/Polling/release_242.xml
