It's important that we elevate and primarily focus on the rights of American citizens, but it's also important that we don't forget, 95 percent of the world's population lives beyond our own borders.
Edward SnowdenRead
Under observation, we act less free, which means we effectively are less free.
Interpretation
The awareness of being watched influences our behavior and perception of freedom.
Edward Snowden's quote emphasizes how the act of being observed can limit our sense of freedom. It suggests that surveillance and scrutiny lead individuals to modify their actions, thereby questioning the essence of true freedom in a society where privacy is compromised.
In practice
During a debate on privacy rights, this quote can highlight the constraints imposed by surveillance.
It's important that we elevate and primarily focus on the rights of American citizens, but it's also important that we don't forget, 95 percent of the world's population lives beyond our own borders.
I think the most important idea is to remember that there have been times throughout American history where what is right is not the same as what is legal.
Congress hasn't declared war on the countries - the majority of them are our allies - but without asking for public permission, NSA is running network operations against them that affect millions of innocent people. And for what? So we can have secret access to a computer in a country we're not even fighting?
A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all.
Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him... the better off we all are.
I don't see myself as a hero because what I'm doing is self-interested: I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.
There is a history in all men's lives.
I have said to you to speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse.
PHYSIOGNOMY, n. The art of determining the character of another by the resemblances and differences between his face and our own, which is the standard of excellence.
For always in her there was a dark place full of despair and a great dividing force to make meaning because there was none.
What an awful thing life is, isnβt it? Itβs like soup with lots of hairs floating on the surface. You have to eat it nevertheless.
To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
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