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Snowden Nominated For Freedom of Thought Prize

Posted by samzenpus on from the is-there-a-trophy? dept.

First time accepted submitter DigitalKhaos23 writes "Snowden is a candidate for the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, named after Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, which honors people or organizations for their work in the defense of human rights and freedom of thought. The article adds: 'Edward Snowden risked his life to confirm what we had long suspected regarding mass online surveillance, a major scandal of our times. He revealed details of violations of EU data protection law and fundamental rights.'"

17 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Lets give him Obama's Nobel Prize by Todd+Palin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let's take Obama's Nobel Prize away and give it to Snowden.

    1. Re:Lets give him Obama's Nobel Prize by epyT-R · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree 100%. He's done more for liberty in the USA than any politician has done in 50 years. he's actually managed to push surveillance as a topic of conversation at the average american's dinner table. That alone is an excellent achievement, nevermind the rest he has done.

    2. Re:Lets give him Obama's Nobel Prize by SuricouRaven · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Obama won the prize for the achievement of not being Bush.

    3. Re:Lets give him Obama's Nobel Prize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Obama won the prize for the achievement of not being Bush.

      Really? I thought he won the prize for pulling the wool over 300 million people's eyes by convincing us he's not Bush...when he really is.

  2. Yes. And. But. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Something about the irony of these prizes:

    They're awarded to the people who are still going to be destroyed for what they've done for humanity while the monsters perpetrating the obscenities against us all are going completely fucking unscathed. The villains are allowed to continue their gross abuses while we give the human equivalent of a gold star sticker to the guy who couldn't not scream.

    1. Re:Yes. And. But. by Xest · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The real irony of this particular prize and nomination is that it's named after a Russian that wanted to flee to the West to escape the oppression in Russia, and this nomination is for someone who had to flee oppression in the West by escaping to Russia.

      How times change.

    2. Re:Yes. And. But. by FriendlyLurker · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Unfortunately it is nothing new and we do not seem to have learned how to deal with it/prevent the rot. Intellectuals have betrayed us all many times in similar ways throughout history.

      "You don’t have any other society where the educated classes are so effectively indoctrinated and controlled by a subtle propaganda system – a private system including media, intellectual opinion forming magazines and the participation of the most highly educated sections of the population. Such people ought to be referred to as “Commissars” – for that is what their essential function is – to set up and maintain a system of doctrines and beliefs which will undermine independent thought and prevent a proper understanding and analysis of national and global institutions, issues, and policies." - From Language and Politics

      Example:

      A more difficult task is to shift the moral onus of the war to its victims. This seems a rather unpromising enterprise -- rather as if the Nazis had attempted to blame the Jews for the crematoria. But undaunted, American propagandists are pursuing this effort too, and with some success. Things have reached the point where an American President can appear on national television and state that we owe "no debt" to the Vietnamese, because "the destruction was mutual."28 And there is not a whisper of protest when this monstrous statement, worthy of Hitler or Stalin, is blandly produced in the midst of a discourse on human rights. Not only do we owe them no debt for having murdered and destroyed and ravaged their land, but we now may stand back and sanctimoniously blame them for dying of disease and malnutrition, deploring their cruelty when hundreds die trying to clear unexploded ordnance by hand from fields laid waste by the violence of the American state, wringing our hands in mock horror when those who were able to survive the American assault -- predictably, the toughest and harshest elements -- resort to oppression and sometimes massive violence, or fail to find solutions to material problems that have no analogue in Western history perhaps since the Black Death.

    3. Re:Yes. And. But. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The main problem is not "intellectuals", its journalism. Or rather the lack of journalism.

      Conflict of interest has destroyed journalism.

  3. Re:It wouldn't be a problem by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Interestingly, we have a similar tradeoff between monarchy and democracy. A monarchy would be clearly more efficient and all around better if we could guarantee we had a good king. And a good deal of the philosophy between the years 1000-1900 was about how society can guarantee to have a good king.

    But since that can't be guaranteed, and the abuses caused by a bad king far outweigh the benefits, it is better to endure the inefficiency (and dare I say, stupidity of your neighbors?) of democracy and the checks and balances than to give all that power to one man.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  4. Don't Forget Jimmy Carter by BBCWatcher · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Considering the last 50 years, I rate Jimmy Carter and his Carter Center very highly, though a big percentage of his good work has been done after his political career ended in 1981.

    1. Re:Don't Forget Jimmy Carter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Considering the last 50 years, I rate Jimmy Carter and his Carter Center very highly, though a big percentage of his good work has been done after his political career ended in 1981.

      Carter is a great former president, Obama was a great future president.

      Time to find a good incumbent.

    2. Re:Don't Forget Jimmy Carter by jez9999 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This isn't true. I think Obama has a fundamental lack of respect for liberty (he laughs off the idea of ending the drug war), privacy (massively expanding unwarranted surveillance), and the constitution (numerous violations such as unwarranted search and seizure), not to mention international law (pardoning the Bush administration for war crimes, torture, etc.)

      He's not hamstrung by the Republicans; he's just a very big disappointment as a president. It's somewhat redundant, if true, to say that he should be impeached, given that that has applied to pretty much all US presidents for the last few decades.

      --
      == Jez ==
      Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
    3. Re:Don't Forget Jimmy Carter by mcvos · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Outrageous statements? Maybe, but his claim that the US is not a functional democracy was not false.

      He may not have been the most effective president, but he's the most noble person to have occupied the White House in recent years. Instead of getting dirtier politicians into office, Americans should work on cleaning up the rest of Washington to people like Carter can have more impact.

  5. largely ignored by most leading intellectuals.... by FriendlyLurker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Let's take Obama's Nobel Prize away and give it to Snowden.

    I agree 100%. He's done more for liberty in the USA than any politician has done in 50 years. he's actually managed to push surveillance as a topic of conversation at the average american's dinner table. That alone is an excellent achievement, nevermind the rest he has done.

    That all being true, no matter what Snowden or any other activist does to try and roll back the fascist encroachments of absolute power - the peace prize world is off limits. Heroes of the people like Manning, Snowden will continue to be labeled traitors and excluded from all significant high profile peace prizes, Time Person of the Year, in large part due to the failure of our intellectuals:

    The article is an attack on the intellectual culture in the U.S., which Chomsky argues is largely subservient to power. He is particularly critical of social scientists and technocrats, who he believed were providing a pseudo-scientific justification for the crimes of the state

    Intellectuals have betrayed us all before and it will continue to happen until a groundswell of people start to shun, exclude and shine a bright constant light on these mostly unnamed behind the scenes policy setters who have corrupted their purpose blinding following the "party line" subservience to power.

  6. Hypocrisy by FriendlyLurker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    European Parliament may be "officially nominating" - but their respective countries have all denied Snowdens asylum requests. Sure sounds like a consolation prize and even if he wins it, it does not let European countries off the hook for their crime. History will judge their actions very poorly - they have done the world a disservice and revealed their deep rooted hypocrisy.

  7. Re:I came by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I do not think you understand the ramifications of what has been done.

    In your defence few do, even here on Slashdot. I saw someone begging for 1984 instead of what we now have which is both far more insidious and far more subtle as well as far more totalitarian. That person is on the right track of understanding; “we” have essentially doomed the future of humanity.

    Nothing less. A fait accompli, a done deal, inescapable.

    We have to fight it but we can never win because winning is now impossible no matter who your are or what one might believe or whatever one claims allegiance to.

    It will never go away now. Widespread ability is too sophisticated to remove it and its seductive allure as a fantasy of control will only grow stronger.

    This is what fate looks like. Fight it not in delusion about winning but to potentially be able to claim ownership of yourself. If nothing else out of pure defiance and spite or even enlightened self-loathing.

    Everyone has already lost but will you choose to lose in style? That's the only real choice left for every human being.

  8. Re:I wonder... by FilatovEV · · Score: 5, Interesting

    how a prize named after Andrei Sakharov is gonna go over with Snowden's landlord, a veteran of the KGB that tormented Andrei Sakharov.

    Reportedly, Putin is a fan of Sakharov.

    An excerpt some early interview with American "National Public Radio":

    Mr. Siegel: On another subject, our listener, Alfred Friendly Jr., sent us this question. He wants to know what influence you believe Andrei Sakharov and other human rights advocates and their supporters in the West had on the course of Soviet and Russian history.
    President Putin: I think that was a crucial impact that they provided. It was a fundamental impact that they provided to the Russian history. At different periods, certain periods of time in the life of any nation, there will be people who turn on the light, if you will, and they show a road for the nation to follow. And no doubt Andrei Sakharov was one of those people who turned on the light.
    Link: http://archive.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2001/11/16/2355_type82916_142499.shtml

    That is, there are no problems whatsoever regarding Sakharov prize for Snowden.

    You might also want to check that Putin is a fan of Solzhenitsyn, too -- under Putin, Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece was included into the Russian regular high school curriculum.