Permanent Record

“Which is to say, from as far back as I can remember, my favorite activity was spying.” 

Snowden suggests that spying and surveillance were a part of his life from a young age, building toward the point where he was no longer surveilling individuals, but entire populations. By laying this foundation, Snowden establishes his credentials. He demonstrates how such surveillance can be an essential element of life from an early age and connects his childhood activities to his decisions in later life.

“Her heritage is straight Pilgrim—her first ancestor on these shores was John Alden, the Mayflower’s cooper, or barrelmaker.”

Much as the previous quote seeks to establish Snowden’s credentials as a spy, this slice of family history establishes his status as an American. By tying his family history to one of the nation’s defining points of origin (the voyage of the Mayflower and the settling of the Pilgrims), he demonstrates his bona fides as an American, which come into question when he is later accused of being a traitor.

“This might not strike you as the healthiest environment in which to grow up, and yet it is precisely the only environment in which you can grow up—by which I meant that the early internet’s dissociative opportunities actually encouraged me and those of my generation to change our most deeply held opinions, instead of just digging in and defending them when challenged.” 

The collectivist, enthusiastic, and anonymous early internet offered an optional entry point into a novel online world. In that world, under the cloak of anonymity, people could challenge their assumptions in an environment of safety. Today, the internet is taken for granted, and people are usually identified as they use online tools. His defense of the early internet is not technological—the modern infrastructure is demonstrably better—but ideological in nature.