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 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).