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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
No Place to Hide summary
Glenn Greenwald
Edward Snowden, the NSA and the Surveillance State
18 mins
Topics
Table of Contents
No Place to Hide
Summary of 10 key ideas
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Key idea 1 of 10
Individual privacy fosters who we are and what we believe in politically.
Behind closed doors and among friends, are your opinions and behaviors different to those you might reveal in public, in particular to certain people such as your pastor, a policeman, your parents or employer? Most of us would answer, “Yes.”
Privacy is crucial to our sense of freedom. When it is compromised, our individuality suffers and we tend to instead behave in a way that is expected of us.
When we know we are being observed, we alter our behavior and become more fearful. We can see this, for example, in a 1975 Stanford University experiment. This study revealed that 77 percent of participants were in favor of legalizing marijuana. However, when they were told their statements were to be viewed by police for “training purposes,” the figure in favor plummeted to 44 percent.
This shows that surveillance significantly affects how we think, especially when it comes to political standpoints.
It is important to have political dissent to maintain a healthy democracy. However, governments have throughout history spied on citizens who dare to go against the status quo.
In recent years, the internet has provided a platform for people to share knowledge and protest authority. It has enabled movements, such as Occupy Wall Street, to stand against gross abuses of power.
Unfortunately, that a government spies on political dissenters is no new discovery. As far back as 1971, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) monitored various political groups, such as those who were anti-war and those involved in the civil rights movement. Shockingly, the FBI even infiltrated some of these groups, posing as members, and tried to influence others to commit crimes.
The resulting paranoia from this covert behavior was sufficient to curb political dissent and subsequently the growth of political movements.
As we’ll see in the following blinks, spying by intelligence agencies impacts our lives, diminishing our privacy and our freedom.
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What is No Place to Hide about?
In No Place to Hide, author Glenn Greenwald details the surveillance activities of secret agencies as according to information leaked by American whistleblower Edward Snowden. Rather than serving as a means to avoid terrorist attacks, as the US National Security Agency (NSA) claims, Greenwald explains that these dubious activities instead seem to be a guise for both economic espionage and spying on the general public. No Place to Hide also brings to light the media’s lack of freedom in detailing certain government and intelligence agency activities, and addresses the consequences whistleblowers face for revealing secret information.
Best quote from No Place to Hide
Fact:
In the 1970s, the FBI labeled 500,000 US citizens as potential subversives, including John Lennon.
—Glenn Greenwald
Who should read No Place to Hide?
- Anyone who uses technology such as email in private correspondence
- Anyone involved in journalism or politics
- Anyone who values their freedom and privacy
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