Anybody who wants to stake out a claim for himself in American history sometimes has to risk the open hostility of the American people, and sometimes also becomes an enemy of the state.

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Anybody who wants to stake out a claim for himself in American history sometimes has to risk the open hostility of the American people, and sometimes also becomes an enemy of the state. That was already clear in the American Revolution when mainly Anglo-Saxon settlers revolted against British rule in 1776; the conflict already then was over ideas and loyalties. It wasn’t ethnicity and heritage which mattered, but convictions and ultimate aims. This fundamental trait makes the United States a highly political nation to this day, one in which citizens and governments constantly wrangle over who has the say in God’s own country.

Such discourse is determined less by party political conflict and much more by individual mavericks, whose visions often extend far beyond the reach of their own times. Many of these people wanted to rechart the entire breadth of the land, and they were controversial unto death itself. Abraham Lincoln created the preconditions for modernization by ending the institution of slavery —and was assassinated in Washington DC in 1865. One century later the struggle for the equal rights of the black minority had still not come to an end; an issue that the fathers of the American constitution had factored out in fear of early conflict for the Republic and thus left highly unresolved for posterity.

King was denigrated by the Chief of the FBI

Martin Luther King Jr., whose name is memorialized today in the names of streets, universites and hospitals, was denigrated by the Chief of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, as „one of the basest characters,“ and „greatest liars in the land“ in 1964. Hoover hardly stood alone with his opinion in those days, especially amongst the white population of the South.

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Today, he would be catapulted out of every television show in the land and out of almost every bar. When the black musician Ray Charles refused to play for segregated audiences in Georgia in 1961, the state banned him for almost 20 years from the stage. It was only in 1979 that Charles performed in his native state again. But it was then, too, that the evergreen „Georgia on My Mind“ was declared Georgia’s offical state song.

The conflict over an issue of freedom

Such collosal changes of positions emerge from the enormous dynamism which shapes America to this day. And from the gift for constant reinvention and self-correction, which was already ingrained deeply in the Puritan tradition. Today, too, a great conflict over an issue of freedom is being played out in the United States. It involves Big Data, the NSA behemoth and the individual. As the incursions against Chancellor Merkel’s cell phone and those of other world leaders show, the debate is hardly limited to the United States. But the debate was kicked-off by a U.S. citizen.

Whomsoever wants to brand the whistleblower Edward Snowden with treason on account of his actions and his chaotic flight to Moscow would do well to recall that an American enemy of the state can turn into an American hero within a couple of decades. In the United States, Snowden is still a considered a pretty filthy traitor. But, in the meantime, not even his harshest critics can past a few facts. He has initiated a global discussion about the data addiction of the NSA as well as the freedom of the individual in the age of the internet.

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Furthermore, the critical question of whether the political establishment is even capable of controlling its own secret services, has been posed in its present, acute form as a direct result of Snowden’s revelations. That the global eavesdropping operations of the NSA have left a swath of diplomatic destruction is not pointed polemic but merely blatant fact. After Snowden, we are aware that the American intelligence services have managed to ensconce themselves since 9/11 in a state-protected parallelogram from which they undertake whatever is technically possible.

This „traitor“ still belongs to the American cosmos

The messenger of these bad tidings fled to Russia in fear of reprisals, that is to say to a country which is not known for its deep respect for individual rights. As absurd as it sounds: if Snowden were sitting in an American jail today, his chances of rehabilitation at home would be much greater. Nonetheless, this „traitor“ still belongs to the American cosmos and not in exile. If Obama wanted to show his decisiveness and power, he would offer Snowden a safe passage home and then fair treatment. However, Obama, like his predecessor George W. Bush, treats whistleblowers with severity.

One day though, when people look through the history books for the mavericks and pathbreakers of our times, they will likely find Snowden’s narrow, quizzical countenance just as well as the broad grin of the 44th President. That one of those is somewhere in Russia at the moment and the other is sitting in the White House, says absolutely nothing, at least by American standards, about who will eventually emerge the winner in this historic conflict.