Myths and heroes : whistle-blowers

1. Myths an Heroes

Intro

Firstly I will define the notion Myth and Hero.  A Myth is an ancient story about gods, heroes and magic. A Hero is a person admired for his achievement, noble qualities and great courage.

In this way we can make out four features of a hero. He is admired, which may translate supports. He makes or had already make achievement. He is courageous. He struggles for noble reasons.

To illustrate this notion. We will take an interest to whistle-blowers and we will ask the question : In what extend are whistle-blowers heroes of modern-time ?

What are the facts

In 2013 (two thousand and thirteen) Edward Snowden revealed the monitoring system of the USA. Snowden makes documents public through media like The Guardian and The Washington Post. Those documents are top-secret for the NSA (NSA for nation security agency) and show the use of meta-data of phone calls and monitoring programs like PRISM, XKeyscore, Boundless Informant and Bullrun of the USA government (and monitoring programs like Tempora, Muscular and Optic Nerve of the Britain government.)

Julian Assange is mainly known as the founder, editor and spokesperson of WikiLeaks whose purpose is to publish confidential documents. Its purpose is to give an audience to whistle-blowers  and information leaks, while protecting its sources. Several million documents relating to scandals of corruption, espionage and human rights violations involving countries around the world have been published on the website since its creation.

For these facts to be achievement it must be beyond the reach of most people. Indeed, only a few of people have access to this information. However, for this fact to be heroic achievement, they must also be risky and dangerous.

What are the risks

Following the revelations, Edward Snowden is accused by the US government on June 22, 2013, of espionage, theft and illegal use of government property. In addition, according to documents published in 2014 by Edward Snowden, the US government has put Assange on the list of the most wanted people (2010 Manhunting Timeline)

In front of these dangers, they are in exile and takes refuge in Russia for Edward Snowden and in the Ecuador Embassy for Julian Assange.

On the one hand the evasion may seem coward.

On the other hand, they stay true to their ideas and continue to inform the public, despite the pressure, the threats and the risks, which is a matter of courage

However, like any hero, they are not isolated and have supporters and detractors.

What are supporters

These revelations make it possible to claim the rights to free information, to be more critical towards the policies taken by the governments (example: the false proofs that triggered the war in Iraq), to better defend the individual liberties like private life (Snowden advises us, among other things, to encrypt our communication as much as possible). Thus, leaks make it possible to create a counter-power to governments.

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