It's been ten years since its release and I finally got around to watching Citizen Four, the Snowden documentary by Laura Poitras. Why did it take me so long? I knew the story and had followed it closely at the time and the film didn't reveal anything new - but it was interesting to see the footage and relive the moment and re-catch the energy and zeitgeist of that time.
It was the period after Bush, when the momentum and narrative drive of 9/11 was beginning to lose steam. Bin Laden was dead but the American War on Terror paradigm had fallen apart. Iraq had not gone well, the Afghanistan War was stuck in a low-grade meat grinder and the geopolitical climate was shifting - but not in America's favour. In fact just a year after the Snowden leaks, ISIS would be dominating the news with beheading videos, the capture of territory, and the proclamation of a new caliphate. So much for Obama's attempt to extricate the US from the Iraqi theatre and 'pivot to Asia'. Once again the Empire left a wasteland which birthed monsters - creating the conditions for the rise of new enemies.
Also during this time it could be said that China had 'arrived' and entered the top tier of global powers, and the uneasy relationship with Russia became openly antagonistic and yet not on the level it would be just a year later in 2014. The Arab Spring tore the Middle East apart but few seemed to understand what was happening. The Syrian Civil War was well underway and the US was in the process of shifting strategies - new shadow wars were emerging, and a new Cold War was developing.
Assange and Wikileaks had revealed much and there had been other whistle-blowers as well, but the scope of US espionage and surveillance was not yet really understood. The Internet was part of every day life and Western culture in less than twenty years had become inconceivable apart from it. Smartphones were on the scene (the iPhone emerged in 2007) but they were still somewhat new - they hadn't become ubiquitous yet. At the time of the Snowden episode about 50% of the US public owned one. A decade later most people (90%+) can't imagine life without them - an amazing social and cultural transformation.
Snowden dropped this bomb and for a brief moment there was real fear in sectors of the Western population and among leaders - how would the public react? How would the state respond? The tools being employed were beyond anything previous totalitarian states could have dreamed of. The Stasi never could have imagined having such surveillance tools available - the ability to collate purchases, movements, thoughts (by means of Internet searches), and circles of associates. Then add to this the ability to turn on microphones and listen to people through phones and televisions, to turn on cameras, and to build dossiers revealing everything about a person.
But then watching the movie in 2024, I was repeatedly struck by a rather startling reality - no one cares. In fact my kids frequently interact with college students and other twenty-somethings that don't even know who Snowden is or what any of it was about. And few are upset by the idea of surveillance and all their data being tracked, filed away, and analyzed. Ignorant of history, they can't see what the issue is. The Smartphone and Social Media have revolutionized culture and privacy is all but dead or at the very least has been radically redefined. There's no scandal because the state doesn't need to steal this data through back-doors. On the contrary these people openly and willingly surrender it. There is no scandal anymore apart from the politicisation of Snowden in connection with Russia or just a general desire to label him a traitor.
At the core of the government's concerns and the reason for such programmes is the fear of dissent. As the US government and its satrapies move toward global conflict, the war always begins at home. Dissent cannot be permitted. The strategists and leaders in Washington cannot allow another anti-war movement to emerge like what was seen in the Vietnam era. Social media and mass digital communication have the potential to shine a light on not just war resistance (of which there is little) but labour strife and the hypocrisy and crimes of Western governments and their media servants. It's too dangerous and has to be monitored and controlled.
Most of the public have handed the tools to their respective governments - giving the state what is effectively a key, not just to your house but your bedroom, closet, file cabinets, safe box, and your diary. Everything is in place and though it receives little notice, Western states do go regularly pursue and go after renegade journalists and other protesters. Peoples lives have been ruined but it isn't covered and independent and alternative outlets have been split and turned against each other.
The Guardian which played a significant role in the leak reporting quickly turned against Snowden and through figures like Luke Harding they actually turned their journalistic and editorial guns against him. Harding would become a significant figure in The Guardian's aggressive campaign against Russia and figures like Assange. Harding ultimately proved unreliable and guilty of fabrication - what should have been a major story in itself, but it was downplayed and largely ignored.
During this time outlets like The Guardian and Al Jazeera underwent some kind of internal reorganization or shift and they moved solidly over into the Establishment column. There are exceptions when it comes to certain topics - Al Jazeera is no friend to Israel. And yet, Al Jazeera moved into the White House Press corps., and The Guardian became a leading voice for the DNC and Labour's right-wing foreign policy objectives vis-à-vis Moscow.
Figures in Citizen Four such as Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill (and Poitras) went on to found The Intercept, but this billionaire-funded project went sideways with the advent of Trump. It increasingly turned away from adversarial and critical journalism to becoming an outlet for the DNC and Labour - with so much of its energy directed toward Trump and his movement.
Greenwald eventually went off on a Libertarian tangent. Disgusted with his Intercept colleagues he began appearing on FOX and fell into Covid-denialism. Poitras was run out over the Reality Winner leak scandal in which The Intercept was blamed for revealing her identity - leading to her incarceration.
Ten years after the documentary I was left shaking my head. It was all for nothing. I wonder if Snowden feels the same way. Everything fragmented, his revelations fell flat in the midst of a rapid social and cultural shift - and everyone has moved on. It's almost like it was another era.
In my mind I see clear epochal shifts with the end of the Cold War and the Clinton presidency (1989-2001). Then there's the whole 9/11 world (2001-2011). And if the lies and deception weren't bad enough during that time, after this comes a period of smoke and mirrors - the plans of empire had gone sideways and there were attempts to rescue the policy and deal with the chaos that emerged during the 2003-2009 period. This epoch (2011-2016) was marked by the Arab Spring, Snowden, ISIS, Syria, the empowered Tea Party, and the end of the War on Terror and beginning of Great Powers Conflict. In the middle of all this was a new economy and new Smartphone-Social Media culture. Technically they antedate this last period but it took a few years for them to become mainstream and normalised.
And then we have the era of Trump (2016-present) - the complete collapse of social consensus, Covid, its politicisation and its cultural effects, and the rise of a new dark age in terms of basic knowledge and discernment. Decadence reigns in lifestyle, discourse, and behaviour. Degeneracy becomes normative from the filthy campaign banners to the dominance of perversion and blasphemy on the streets and screens. Disinformation dominates on all sides and the imperial factions dominating the West have entered in to what is effectively a period of civil war. And it's not over yet.
That said, we are now potentially on the cusp of a new cultural period and the tensions and possibilities represented by someone like Snowden seem very far away - it feels more like an event from thirty years ago than just ten.
The film itself is interesting though not nearly as intense as it might have been. The scenario is poorly explained as are the issues. Much of the footage is in the Hong Kong hotel room. It's worth seeing but overall I was disappointed. I got more out of rekindling memory and the angst of that time than any real information the film might have provided.