Whistleblowers: responsibilities and persecution

Would Jesus Now be Prosecuted by US? (Part #9)

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The question must necessarily be asked whether failure to disclose information enabling more informed democratic decision-making endangers more lives than restriction of access to information. How is this to be determined -- and by whom -- given the constraints on democratic oversight, discussed separately (Simulation of consequences and possibilities of cognitive engagement, 2013).

Classic examples include:

• problematic effect of pesticides on the environment, as initially documented by Rachel Carson (silent spring, 1962)
• problematic impact of nuclear power
• problematic consequences of structural defects in buildings, bridges and dams
• problematic consequences of earthquakes
• problematic consequences of unconstrained population increase

The issues are central to the ongoing debate regarding the role of whistleblowers and how that is to be enabled, protected and constrained. A whistleblower is a person who exposes misconduct, alleged dishonest or illegal activity occurring in an organization. In performing this role Manning-Assange-Snowden are currently facing reprisal at the hands of those responsible. Whistleblowing protection in the USA is affected by a complex patchwork of contradictory laws -- raising numerous questions regarding the justice of any trial.

Arguments for whistleblowing: Withholding facts, or a proportion of them, prevents appreciation of the truth with regard to a wide variety of economic, social and psychological processes. This is now obvious in many domains:

• Science: Various disciplines have been associated with tendencies to suppress facts as anomalously disruptive of preferred theories. Extreme examples include cases of scientific fraud.
• Marketing of products: Corporations have provided numerous examples of misleading advertising and the suppression of information regarding dangers associated with their products, most notably the tobacco industry (Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt: how a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming, 2010)
• Statistics: It is widely recognized that official statistics are vulnerable to being "massaged" to frame official policies to the advantage of their advocates.
• Classified information: Vast amounts of information are held under various degrees of classification for various periods (as in the case of official archives). As revealed by the release of diplomatic cables via Wikileaks, significant facts are deliberately withheld to ensure strategic advantage.
• Secret treaties and agreements: It is recognized that an array of treaties and agreements between governments are secret, as are many agreements between corporations (possibly associated with the price-fixing arrangements of cartels)
• Secret knowledge: Various groups are believed, and may claim, to have secret knowledge of fundamental significance to the future of civilization. Ironically more evident, however, is the extent of the tendency to subtract from any presentation of the "whole truth" through a code of silence -- omertà (Varieties of the "Unsaid" in sustaining psycho-social community, 2003).
• Transparency: This becomes most evident with respect to financial transparency and undeclared conflicts of interest in the case of those holding some form of public office. It is the focus of periodic scandals, notably enhanced by unsuspected sexual implications.

Spiritual whistleblowing: Returning to the case of Jesus, as argued by Van Robison (Spiritual Whistleblowers, Battered sheep, 2010):

There were many whistleblowers in the Old Testament and they were called "prophets." Many whistleblowers in the Old Testament were martyred, as Jesus Christ says in Matthew 23:31 "Wherefore you are witnesses unto yourselves, that you are the children of them, which killed the prophets." The mentality of power mongers, people controllers, and lusters of money, resources, land, buildings and all things of a material nature, is ever with mankind....

Jesus Christ was the greatest Whistleblower the world has ever known, and to this day the world is overrun with character assassins who malign the character of Jesus Christ, and who attempt to make the world believe that Jesus Christ was a "myth." Christians are victimized by deceivers and human lords who want power, control and free money. Truth is often a rare quality because liars deceive, and the world is full of liars....

It is very difficult to know the real truth about many issues because of the web of deceit that surrounds many of these events. No doubt, some of the books that came on the market are very likely written by clandestine sources such as the CIA, who use spurious names to hide their true identity...

spiritual whistleblowers are frowned upon by those who can't see, and by those who love their power, control and free flowing money. False prophets, pastors, scribes, priests and deceivers -- hate being exposed as frauds. Jesus Christ exposed the fraud of man-made traditions in the name of God, which cost Him His life on the cross of crucifixion. We are told that most of the original disciples of Jesus Christ were also martyred for being whistleblowers and proclaiming the truth. Many human beings have been sent to their graves early in life for being truth tellers and shedding light upon darkness.

Self-reflection and whistleblowing: The surveillance whistleblowers are now eliciting debate amongst Christians in the USA (Stephen Mattson, Should Christians Support Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange? RedLetter Christians, 28 June 2013; John Dear, Why the Churches Should Support Bradley Manning, The Huffington Post, 6 June 2013). Rinny Gremaud (What Watching Whistleblowers Tells US About Ourselves, WorldCrunch, 14 June 2013) asks:

Why are the whistleblowers making everyone uncomfortable? Probably because it's the nature of our society to keep its distance with the insubordinate, those people who place their judgment above the rules of the community. But wait, there's more to it. Maybe it's this way of putting every one of us in front of our responsibilities. We end up asking ourselves: What would I have done if I were in his place? What kind of machinery am I fueling, doing what I do? Every single day I do what I'm told, but in the end, am I not contributing to making this world worse than it is? Is my salary a monthly bribe to keep my mouth shut? should I ask for a raise?

As argued by Gremaud, the action of whistleblowers offers an extraordinary form of cognitive mirror -- of the kind described by Douglas Hofstadter (Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, 1979; I Am a Strange Loop, 2007) -- and speculatively argued separately (Iconic Extrajudicial Execution of Jesus through Osama by US? Whither a cyclopean global Pax Americana lacking depth perception? 2011).

Perhaps most strange in the development of the tale of Christianity is the manner in which a purportedly Christian country has transformed itself into one which would prosecute Jesus -- following the pattern at the origin of that religion -- effectively embodying the characteristics of those long condemned for that prosecution.

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