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I'm pretty sure that Assange said that Ecuador had issued Snowden with refugee-asylum type documents (sorry dont know the official term) that allow him to trave

I'm pretty sure that Assange said that Ecuador had issued Snowden with refugee-asylum type documents (sorry dont know the official term) that allow him to travel. Thats what he used to get out of Hong Kong I think. This does not necessarily mean that Ecuador is his final destination though.

notdrunkatall 13y ago
Does anyone else find it incredibly unsettling that you need to be sponsored by a state to move about the world? I mean it's something that I've always known, but never considered until recently. Until just a couple of hundred years ago, this was not the case - you could do something which put you at odds with your country, and despite their best efforts, you could still disappear. Contrast that with today, when your freedom hinges on the whims of our parent state and the subsequent whims of any other state which might decide to stick their neck out to help you. It's unsettling how much different the two situations are in terms of how much control the state ultimately has over us. And that control is only increasing. Do something against the collective state apparatus, and you had better hope that somewhere, someone is willing to help you out, because without those documents, you're going to be fucked. I don't think I like that very much.
- icegreentea 13y ago
  I think you're over simplifying the past a bit. While it's true that it was harder for governments to track you, it wasn't like they weren't trying. If someone in power wanted you dead (or captured... but usually dead), they would go ahead and try. You can go right back to the Roman Republic and the Greek city-states and find cases of people trying to flee, or going into exile, and then being hunted down and executed. Your ability to protect yourself has always had as much to do with your own abilities and luck, as your ability to secure protection from a rival state.
  - notdrunkatall 13y ago
    Being hunted is tangential to my point, which is that that we are entirely at the mercy of our states.

notdrunkatall 13y ago

Does anyone else find it incredibly unsettling that you need to be sponsored by a state to move about the world? I mean it's something that I've always known, but never considered until recently. Until just a couple of hundred years ago, this was not the case - you could do something which put you at odds with your country, and despite their best efforts, you could still disappear. Contrast that with today, when your freedom hinges on the whims of our parent state and the subsequent whims of any other state which might decide to stick their neck out to help you. It's unsettling how much different the two situations are in terms of how much control the state ultimately has over us. And that control is only increasing. Do something against the collective state apparatus, and you had better hope that somewhere, someone is willing to help you out, because without those documents, you're going to be fucked. I don't think I like that very much.

icegreentea 13y ago
I think you're over simplifying the past a bit. While it's true that it was harder for governments to track you, it wasn't like they weren't trying. If someone in power wanted you dead (or captured... but usually dead), they would go ahead and try. You can go right back to the Roman Republic and the Greek city-states and find cases of people trying to flee, or going into exile, and then being hunted down and executed. Your ability to protect yourself has always had as much to do with your own abilities and luck, as your ability to secure protection from a rival state.
- notdrunkatall 13y ago
  Being hunted is tangential to my point, which is that that we are entirely at the mercy of our states.