Snowden exhibits delusions of grandeur? Paranoia?

A 'delusion of grandeur' is a psychological term for a person who thinks he is 'greater' than he actually is.  Usually a person who suffers from a delusion of grandeur thinks he is amazingly great and he often thinks that he is being persecuted because of his greatness. 

So a delusion of grandeur usually goes hand in hand with paranoia - the false belief that people want to harm you for no good reason. Many people with delusions of grandeur feel they are historically important people and the 'authorities' are trying to destroy them.

Edward Snowden's letter to the president of Ecuador seems to exhibit both a delusion of grandeur and paranoia.  In reality Snowden was a high school drop out who initially worked as a security guard for a government agency.  He revealed the US spy program called "PRISM" but failed to show that even one US citizen had his rights violated through this program.

President Obama has denied that any American citizens are being spied on.  I tend to believe Obama this time.  Very simply put, Obama can't afford to lie about PRISM since he has suffered from so many other scandals lately.  It looks as if Snowden has over-exaggerated the meaning of the PRISM program.  Full of sound and fury and signifying nothing...

Indeed, I tend to believe Obama because it was recently revealed that Snowden has been a supporter of a political candidate who seems to encourage paranoia in Americans - Ron Paul.  Paul seems to believe that the US government is stealing our freedoms.  Where?  How?  These folks don't give concrete answers, they just make these accusations which are never taken very seriously by many people anyway. 

Furthermore, Snowden states that the people of the US have cried out their support for him.  This is not true.  Nearly every Congressperson in America wants to throw Snowden in jail and I believe the American people are beginning to realize that Snowden isn't what he first appeared to be.

Also, in his letter he writes, "No matter how many more days my life contains..."  Nobody, however, wants to kill him. He is not in danger of being killed.  If he feels he is right and the government is wrong, he is welcome to come back to the USA where celebrity lawyers will represent him for free and where his trial will be on TV every day of the week. Instead he is cowering in a Russian airport the way his apparent mentor Julian Assange is cowering to avoid what may be entirely legitimate sexual assault charges brought against him by women in Sweden.

Finally, he writes that he remains dedicated to the fight for justice in this 'unequal world.'  May I please ask when Snowden ever did any volunteer work or tried to address the various inequalities in the USA?  It seems to me that he has taken very good care of himself throughout his life (including a $200,000 a year job given to him by the government he is now attacking). 

Here's an article about Snowden's letter to the president of Ecuador:

http://news.yahoo.com/edward-snowden-breaks-silence-threaten-u-disclosures-210531789.html

Can we trust Ed Snowden? I don't think so.

I found an interesting article that provides a basic background on Ed Snowden.

What I found to be especially interesting is the fact that he donated $500 to Ron Paul when Paul ran for the presidency last time.

Please excuse me for saying this, but Ron Paul is kind of a nut.  (A nut means a crazy person.)

Ron Paul keeps running for the presidency and, basically, nobody ever votes for him. He considers himself a 'libertarian.' This apparently means that he thinks a strong central government is a bad thing and that the less government there is, the better everyone will be.

Libertarians often believe that the US government is 'stealing' freedoms from the people. I have always felt that 'libertarians' were kind of nutty and paranoid.  If you are paranoid, you believe that someone is trying to hurt you when, in fact, nobody is trying to hurt you. 

So basically we can assume that as a Ron Paul supporter, Ed Snowden has believed that the US government is trying to steal the freedoms and rights of American citizens.  Obama has denied that US citizens were spied on, however.  And, everybody knows that suspicious foreigners are monitored by the US government.

So, basically, I don't trust what Snowden says.  I think his support of a nutty political candidate compels me (forces me) to doubt anything he might say. I think he is kind of a paranoid guy who is making everyone else paranoid.  He should not be taken seriously.

So here's something about Ed Snowden.  May he enjoy his life in Ecuador.

The article:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/10/18882615-what-we-know-about-nsa-leaker-edward-snowden?lite

Vocabulary to help you understand the article:

NSA leaker - National Security Agency employee who revealed secret information

a whiz - a genius.  A computer whiz is someone who is really good with computers.

to divulge - to reveal.

his upbringing - his childhood

mounting disillusionment - greater and greater mistrust of the government

intrusion - if the government is intruding in the lives of Americans, it means they are looking into the lives of Americans when they should not be.

"I do not want to live in a society where everything I do and say is being recorded." - everything we do and say is not being recorded. 

bespectacled - wearing glasses

a self-proclaimed spy - he calls himself a spy (nobody else does).

a traitor - someone who betrays his country.

a brainiac - a very smart person.  This brainiac never graduated from high school, however.

a general equivalency degree - if you do not finish high school you can take the GED test and get your high school diploma that way.  The GED is a very easy test.

military service - he dropped out of high school and dropped out of the army.

the fallout - the negative consequences.

a spook - a spy. He likes to think of himself in very dramatic terms as a spy.