Nick Harkaway Quotes
A desire for privacy does not imply shameful secrets; Moglen argues, again and again, that without anonymity in discourse, free speech is impossible, and hence also democracy. The right to speak the truth to power does not shield the speaker from the consequences of doing so; only comparable power or anonymity can do that.
Harkaway, Nick. The Blind Giant: Being Human in a Digital World. John Murray, 2012.
The first non-PRI President in over 70 years.
He was referring to the non-democratic states of the Middle-East.
Edward Snowden, a defense contractor and government employee, publicly revealed that the U. S. intelligence agencies were intercepting and keeping a data base of ALL telephone calls and all Internet e-mails. The government had denied that this was so, and had classified the domestic spying program as Top Secret. Snowden had signed an agreement not to reveal any classified information, and he violated the agreement. Therefore the government was trying to extradite Snowden from Russia at the time so that they could criminally prosecute him. However, there was great debate as to whether the spying on all Americans was legal and Constitutional. Many saw Snowden as a “whistleblower” and pointed out that the government which had lied wanted to prosecute Snowden for telling the truth. Fein, an attorney, was representing Snowden and his family.
The Scientific Project that developed the Atomic Bomb. After the development of the atomic bomb there were great pressures on the involved scientists to downplay the dangers of nuclear weapons development. The weapons developer arm of the government was anxious not to frighten the public which might call for more oversight or even limitation of development and testing. Equally important was the scientists themselves who understood the forces that they had unleashed and were worried that if the public realized the worst of the possibilities, science and scientific research itself might be in jeopardy from a new Luddite reaction. Oppenheimer urged candor with the public. Most scientists took his advice but the Atomic Energy Commission had become politicized and when Oppenheimer went public with his and others scientific concerns they punished him by calling him a security risk and withdrawing his clearance thus cutting him off from new developments and discrediting him and his views at the same time.
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He was countering the argument of unlimited free speech advocates that fascist hate speech should not be countered by more speech on teh other side. Historically, he observed, that Fascism has only been defeated by force and control.
Nicholas Cornwell (born 1972), better known by his pen name Nick Harkaway, is a British novelist and commentator. He is the author of the novels The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman, and Gnomon; and a non-fiction study of the digital world, The Blind Giant: Being Human in a Digital World.
