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Quote by Edward Snowden

“Has the center of gravity shifted such that all governments have greater powers and fewer restrictions than they ever had, and are empowered by technology in a way that no government ever was in the past?”

Quote by Edward Snowden

Author

Edward Snowden, born on June 21, 1983, is a system administrator. He is renowned for his disclosure of the global surveillance programs of the United States National Security Agency (NSA). In 2013, he leaked a large number of documents about these programs, which sparked widespread international attention. more

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“How do we preserve our civil rights, our traditions as a liberal democracy, in a time when government power is expanding and is more and more difficult to check?”

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“Do we want to emulate China in the way that China emulates the West? I think, for most Americans, the answer to that question would be no.”

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“There is more action in some other countries. In Germany, they've called for a very serious inquiry that's discovering more and more. They've just discovered a significant violation of the German Constitution that had been concealed from the Parliament.”

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“In the United States, there hasn't been much legislative change on the surveillance issue, although there are some tepid proposals.”

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“We are a representative democracy. But how did we get there? We got there through direct action. And that's enshrined in our Constitution and in our values.”

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“We have the right of revolution. Revolution does not always have to be weapons and warfare; it's also about revolutionary ideas.”

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“A given order may at any given time fail to represent those values, even work against those values. I think that's the dynamic we're seeing today.”

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“We have these traditional political parties that are less and less responsive to the needs of ordinary people, so people are in search of their own values.”

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“If the government or the parties won't address our needs, we will. It's about direct action, even civil disobedience.”

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“The state says: "Well, in order for it to be legitimate civil disobedience, you have to follow these rules." They put us in "free-speech zones"; they say you can only do it at this time, and in this way, and you can't interrupt the functioning of the government. They limit the impact that civil disobedience can achieve. We have to remember that civil disobedience must be disobedience if it's to be effective.”

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