The story of Edward Snowden, the American who leaked details of his government’s  surveillance, specifically computer hacking, makes interesting reading. He is now in hiding, having fled to Hong Kong, where he made his revelations public. Consequently, the FBI have evidently put him at the top of their “most wanted” list. Surely, nobody can be surprised at what the US Government has been up to, nor any other government for that matter. This is what governments do. Power and control are comfortable bed-fellows and it was ever thus.

Without government there is anarchy and clearly, to govern effectively, there has to be some measure of control. There also has to be, in a democracy at least, proper safeguard of individual liberty. The difficulty, as all governing bodies have discovered since primitive man began forming organised tribes, is getting the right balance between the need to control and the freedom of the individual.

As members of a civilised democracy we can only hope that the state protects and safeguards the interests of all law-abiding citizens equally, free from oppression and prejudice. If the line is crossed and the balance falls too firmly in favour of the state we must ensure that, through all lawful means (including court action) the balance is reset and government is reminded of its duties and responsibilities. That is the beauty of democracy.

Edward Snowden may well have another agenda but I hope not. The fact that he felt able to stand up to the US Government and expose what he felt was wrong and corrupt is to his great credit. We are not quite yet into the 1984 scenario described by George Orwell in his prescient masterpiece where the little man, Winston Smith, stood up to the system before it eventually crushed him. We must do all we can to ensure that we never are.