The Mindset Of A Whistle-blower

 

While Edward Snowden (NSA surveillance whistle-blower) has suddenly disappeared from his last known location in Hong Kong, you may be wondering what kind of person is a whistle-blower…

You may think that a whistle-blower is of a rebellious personality, someone who is standing up against the system. But according to experts who work with them, the average whistle-blower is actually deeply loyal, and not rebellious at all.

According to a professor of political philosophy and author of the book “Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power,” most of the whistle-blowers he talked to had intense allegiance to the organizations they worked for.

“My experience is that whistle-blowers are not politically radical people,” “they tend to be conservative in the sense that they expect people to do the right thing.”

“They expect the game to be played the way it’s supposed to be played.” And when it isn’t, “they’re genuinely shocked.”

“They’re not as cynical as the rest of us.”

- C. Fred Alford, reported at Salon.com

Coauthor of “The Corporate Whistleblower’s Survival Guide,” Tom Devine said: “Most whistle-blowers deeply believe in their organization and are speaking out to defend it against mistakes which could backfire.” “Most whistle-blowers are trying to honor their professional responsibilities.”

“Most whistle-blowers who leave their legal rights behind try to stay anonymous. Mr. Snowden’s courage is rare and unique.”

While much of the main stream news media has suddenly begun to paint Snowden as a ‘bad guy’, the reality may be that he is someone who is trying to do the right thing while letting us all know the bigger picture of our privacy being stripped away as all of our communications and electronic data are being sucked up the enormous NSA vacuum cleaner…

I know that there are many Americans who do not have a problem with their government spying on everything that they do. These people will say, “If you have nothing to hide, then you should have nothing to worry about.” Unfortunately these same people have completely missed the point… they do not have an understanding of history, they do not know their own Constitution, and they do not understand the inherent danger and where it will almost certainly lead…

Remember this… absolute power corrupts, absolutely.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

- Thomas Jefferson

http://modernsurvivalblog.com/lessons-from-history/the-mindset-of-a-whistle-blower/