Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Jacob Appelbaum, and everyone else who give so much for a better future. Everyone so altruistic that they give away their comfortable way of life, sometimes even their lives, for what they believe in.
I strongly recommend the documentary Citizenfour, which chronicles Edward Snowden's encounters with Glen Greenwald in Hong Kong. Just listening to Snowden in these moments, you get a sense of the driving force behind his act of sedition, and it's very clearly coming from a position of deep altruism (even though he himself plays it down by saying doing an altruistic act brings him pleasure and is thus selfish).
Watching him in that video, I couldn't escape the feeling that this was what a hero looked like. And I don't mean this as hyperbole. He's a man who looked at a systemic wrongful situation and made the decision to attempt to rectify it at the risk to his own life and those around him.
Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Jacob Appelbaum, and everyone else who give so much for a better future. Everyone so altruistic that they give away their comfortable way of life, sometimes even their lives, for what they believe in.
I strongly recommend the documentary Citizenfour, which chronicles Edward Snowden's encounters with Glen Greenwald in Hong Kong. Just listening to Snowden in these moments, you get a sense of the driving force behind his act of sedition, and it's very clearly coming from a position of deep altruism (even though he himself plays it down by saying doing an altruistic act brings him pleasure and is thus selfish).
Watching him in that video, I couldn't escape the feeling that this was what a hero looked like. And I don't mean this as hyperbole. He's a man who looked at a systemic wrongful situation and made the decision to attempt to rectify it at the risk to his own life and those around him.
I really loved this documentary! I agree with everything you said. He's a hero in every sense of the word (in my eyes, at least).