Edward Snowden and the Ethics of Whistleblowing by Philosophy Talk published on 2015-07-03T16:49:43Z More at http://www.philosophytalk.org/snowden. You might think we each have a moral duty to expose any serious misconduct, dishonesty, or illegal activity we discover in an organization, especially when such conduct directly threatens the public interest. However, increasingly we are seeing whistleblowers punished more harshly than the alleged wrongdoers, who often seem to get off scot-free. Given the possibility of harsh retaliation, how should we understand our moral duty to tell the truth and reveal wrongdoing? Should we think of whistleblowers as selfless martyrs, as traitors, or as something else? Do we need to change the laws to provide greater protection for whistleblowers? John and Ken welcome our era's most renowned whistleblower, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Genre philosophy Comment by kelesey Ribisi sup mgk 2017-03-26T20:04:30Z Comment by Karen Vegan-Call With consensus governance decision making, your voice and vote actually count. People can use this system with local pockets of communities. If we grow our own Vegan food, and do everything we can to not interact with any "take what we want by force" government, we will eventually see the fall of that corruption and the dawn of a Peaceful age. This means to not accept "Free" services from the crime syndicate, and do not trade with them either for their fake money which is printed by the federal reserve without being backed by an actual life-supporting product or service, and which instead, they use to exchange for products and services people have worked hard for. In exchange, they sell the "national debt" to countries like China so we see cheaper and cheaper degradation of products and destruction of our planet environment from their environmentally-destructive practices. But: focus on the solution. Autonomy and self-sufficiency as much as possible. 2015-07-21T15:43:36Z Comment by Karen Vegan-Call If we want to stop a corrupt government that thinks it has "others best interests at heart", then we must recognize that everything we do is for our own interest, because we think it will make us feel good. And that's a good thing. Yet, we don't have to sacrifice others to do this: just recognize that people can govern themselves, and come to others for service and advice. I'm not talking about Utopia, because we all make mistakes. However, we must stop taking government assistance of any kind, unless that "government" is not operated by tax funds and is a willing volunteer. 2015-07-21T15:36:16Z Comment by Karen Vegan-Call You want to stop corruption? Then live "corrupt-free". Be Vegan. Practice Ahimsa, or dynamic harmlessness. Practice sound money habits and do not place yourself into debt slavery. This idea that "pain is good", that "suffering is good" is the root cause of it all. Entire religions are built around it. The violent mind-set has to go. The vengeance has to go. Peace starts from within and radiates into our words and actions. Teal Swan has some excellent advice on meditation and how to begin so that these "living in emergency" states of thinking and acting can be replaced with self-autonomy, independence, authentic communication, love, wisdom, understanding, deeper, satisfying connections with others, health, happiness, and true power, which is karmic. 2015-07-21T15:32:50Z Comment by Karen Vegan-Call The U.S. "government" (and all governments that do this) are corporations built to protect their own interest, and come up with a red party/blue party system to distract people from the truth of their Imperialism. Every time someone says "yes" to a government service, they are giving their approval to this crime syndicate for their "services" of theft of themselves and others. Will, for instance, the U.S. government or others to ever recognize that it is amoral to kill animals? Never. Their entire system is built on theft of "the other". Privatization and free markets are only possible when people are willing only to volunteer and to trade value for value without a "something for nothing" mentality. 2015-07-21T15:26:46Z Comment by Karen Vegan-Call How does one reform an inherently corrupt industry? It's not possible. When people tell Edward Snowden he's a hero (which he is) for "exposing their dirty secrets"...do they not realize the entire government is a crime syndicate who takes money from others by gunpoint, aka taxation, and calls it legal? 2015-07-21T15:26:33Z
