Edward Snowden - A Conversation on Privacy Part 2
Edward Snowden: " I would say privacy is the founding head of all
other rights. Privacy is the right to the self, privacy is the right as
we have in the Constitution to freedom of speech, freedom of press,
freedom of religion, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure
without probable cause. Privacy is the right to a free mind. Now how can
I say that, right, that seems sort of abstract, but when you think
about it, privacy is what allows us to determine what we believe, without
being influenced by others, without being subject to peer pressure,
without our ideas being prejudged before they’re fully formed. Freedom
of speech has no meaning if you don’t have the space, the time, the
freedom to determine what it is that you want to say. Freedom of
religion has no value if you cannot independently determine what it is
that you believe in, otherwise you’re being influenced by what’s popular
or what you inherited."
"And when I sort of follow this, and I think about this in my own terms,
particularly when we’re confronted with the arguments of sort of
apologists for the national security state and the argument that was
first proposed by the Nazis against privacy, which was if you have
nothing to hide you have nothing to fear, I would say that arguing that
you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is like
saying that you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to
say. "
