Snowden: Spy of Freedom

Julian Assange stated recently that Edward Snowden achieved victory and humankind is indebted to him. Well, even President Barack Obama is. I think that in such a case, Vladimir Putin must also be indebted to Snowden, and now it has become certain according to his spiritual leader, Assange. After all — great minds think alike.

Snowden for sure thinks similarly of Assange — he regards him as a great winner, defender of virtue, rights and, above all, our freedom. If he hasn’t said it yet, he will surely do it soon.

And how about humankind being indebted to him? I at least don’t have any debts; I don’t owe anyone anything. Severski is one of more or less 7,095,217,980 people, the same as every one of you. So Assange and Snowden don’t speak for the part of humankind to which I belong, but they do speak for another part. How many people are in that part? We don’t know.

I was always very interested in figures who claimed that they acted on behalf of humankind and freedom. A couple of people succeeded, and now they play the role of prophets or messiahs. But the rest didn’t do so well, and they disappeared in the bloody turmoil of history, with their many believers following them. It’s understandable that numerous masses of believers gather around contenders for the roles of prophets because people always want and look for something, which is natural. They walk the earth and dig around here and there, but they do not always know what exactly they are looking for. That’s why they need a prophet.

And now about freedom.

It’s the most beautiful and emptiest word used by people. A buzzword, mist, a balloon, a dream. Millions of people have died for this word, and millions have been killed for it. It has been like that since people put these syllables together into a word and understood how it could be used, all the way to one recent freedom operation — “Operation Iraqi Freedom” — which brought freedom to almost one million victims. That’s why neither Assange, Snowden nor any other prophet of this kind will do anything good for the freedom of humankind. Everything will remain as it always has; as it is with every prophet, he’ll take away a piece of freedom from somebody else.

I am reminded again of the watchword of the French Revolution, which is a foundation of “our European freedom” — “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, ou la Mort,” that is, “Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood or Death.” Through the centuries this watchword was repeated on banners in many combinations, according to current political or historical needs, while gently omitting the fourth part of it. But, as it turns out, it is still the most important part of this watchword, and though prophets and politicians try to gracefully omit it, they know perfectly well that the first three terms can’t be put into practice without the fourth part.

Are you, the one who is now reading this text and spitting on the screen of your computer, free? Did Assange and Snowden help you to understand what freedom is? What kind of freedom does the one who spits on the TV screen need, and what kind does the one who spits on the newspaper need? Is anyone who doesn’t spit free? Are gays, lesbians, soldiers, politicians, the handicapped, football hooligans, anarchists and nationalists free? Even Internet users aren’t free.

It’s all strange.