Edward Snowden Consequentialism

According to Encyclopedia Britannica online, consequentialism is an ethical system based on the theory that decisions are judged right or wrong on the basis of the consequences of that decision. In other words, the term “the ends justify the means” would accurately portray the idea behind consequentialism. Utilitarianism is the most well known version of consequentialism, with philosophers like Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill arguing that what is moral is that which promotes the greatest good for the greatest number. Not surprisingly there has been much debate over the years on the morality of this theory. One of the major arguments has been that consequentialism results in immoral acts being identified as moral. The recent case of Edward

There were quite a few violations the Edward Snowden brought to the public’s view besides for the mass collection of phone and Internet data that has spawned reform initiatives within the government. Some of the violation listed by the New York Times included, “the N.S.A. broke federal privacy laws, or exceeded its authority, thousands of times per year, according to the agency’s own internal auditor” and “the agency broke into the communications links of major data centers around the world, allowing it to spy on hundreds of millions of user accounts and infuriating the Internet companies that own the centers” (The Editorial Board,

In a speech given by President Obama in January 2014, he acknowledged Edward Snowden’s role in spurring the reform to the U.S. surveillance practices but disagreed with the methods taken by Mr. Snowden. President Obama stated, “Our nation’s defense depends in part on the fidelity of those entrusted with our nation’s secrets. If any individual who objects to government policy can take it in their own hands to publicly disclose classified information, then we will not be able to keep our people safe, or conduct foreign policy” (Gerstein,