Ultimately our ability to create new and exciting things is governed by the political and economic power we wield. It is without any doubt that the current eve

Ultimately our ability to create new and exciting things is governed by the political and economic power we wield. It is without any doubt that the current events have created a situation where we sacrifice our commercial stake in 'internet leadership' globally for the sake of short term intelligence gains. The financial machinery of the intelligence community has co-opted the political power structure of the nation. The freedom to speak publicly without asymmetric authoritarian consequence does not exist, if it ever did. Thus, to focus on tech and start ups, the environment needs to be less toxic.