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A review by simplestyle
Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
5.0
Edward Snowden became a hero of mine overnight in 2013. Since then, his actions have had a significant impact, though that impact is not as extensive as we all would like. Encryption is more widely adopted, certain policies have been rolled back, but our privacy has continued to erode.
The book makes the case for privacy and blasts the Intelligence Community and politicians for betraying ours. The arguments are straightforward and compelling, benefitting from the books memoir structure, which allows us to relate to Snowden and better understand his actions.
And those actions are inspiring. The man gave up everything to stand up for principles that everyone around him in the IC had abandoned. His continued exile in Russia is testament to the self-serving nature of the US government, which is more interested in protecting itself than in reforming its practices, which erode our privacy and the country's democracy.
It was interesting to read Permanent Reading having just finished The World As It Is, which painted an overwhelmingly positive picture of the Obama administration and only made the briefest mention of Snowden and his revelations, essentially dismissing both. This book balances the scale.
The book makes the case for privacy and blasts the Intelligence Community and politicians for betraying ours. The arguments are straightforward and compelling, benefitting from the books memoir structure, which allows us to relate to Snowden and better understand his actions.
And those actions are inspiring. The man gave up everything to stand up for principles that everyone around him in the IC had abandoned. His continued exile in Russia is testament to the self-serving nature of the US government, which is more interested in protecting itself than in reforming its practices, which erode our privacy and the country's democracy.
It was interesting to read Permanent Reading having just finished The World As It Is, which painted an overwhelmingly positive picture of the Obama administration and only made the briefest mention of Snowden and his revelations, essentially dismissing both. This book balances the scale.