I just read a well-respected journalist I like who, until recently, had taken the entirely unfashionable position that Edward Snowden was incredibly irresponsible in taking his four laptops to Hong Kong. In his hedging and walk back I think there is the tell-tale sign of someone anxious that he's no longer kewl due to an excess of realism. Like owning an enormously expensive car or jewel, the price of having the kewl is to be constantly anxious at losing it. And you can lose it so easily, you can stumble into it merely by reasoning your way out of it.
In my recent research of the kewl kids at a still kewl blog, I saw the signs of said well-respected journalist having his kewl kuotient suffering over his excessively realistic line on Snowden and the required faith that master spy Snowden was right, that those honorable, honest, privacy-respecting, civil libertarians of the Chinese intelligence service hadn't gotten a thing from him. By virtue of his supernatural wiles and superhuman abilities to resist drugging, sleep deprivation, pressure, coercion, threat, bribe, etc. Edward Snowden was able to guarantee the total security of his laptops and any magical, unbreakable encryption codes he relied on. The Chinese Intelligence Services vs. Edward - in their physical control in Hong Kong, desperate to avoid return to the U.S. desperate to get somewhere else safe from them - Snowden. That's VS. CHINESE INTELLIGENCE. Oh, and, yes, then Russian intelligence.
And that those oh, so honorable Chinese government officials would arrange his travel plans making sure that their rivals in Moscow practiced the same levels of honor and Boy Scout level code of conduct that they did, not extracting any kind of favor from the Russians to allow Snowden and, you remember, his laptops to enjoy their hospitality.
Thank God I'm not tempted to pretend that quantity of complete crap to keep my cache of kewl. Thank you, my detractors, you've spared me from having to make those kinds of decisions.
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