Further Reflections on The Big Leak
Is that thing alive? Yes.
Is it a human life? Yes.
Is it acceptable to knowingly kill a human without just cause? No.
Can simply not wanting to share the planet with an innocent human who has committed no violence and threatens no harm constitute just cause for killing that human? No.
Note to Garry Kasparov.— It is appalling and a call to action to consider the thousands of innocent human lives being wantonly killed by Russia’s will in Ukraine. It is appalling and a call to action to consider the women being denied their federally protected right to wantonly kill millions of innocent human lives at will in America.
No similarity between the two situations? Please try to explain that lack of similarity in cold, chess-like logic.
“Leaking” — our ubiquitous euphemism for releasing government information strictly protected by law, oath, and/or professional ethics — is a violation of the spirit, if not the basic procedures and provisions, of constitutional government. There are exceptional circumstances in which such a violation might be justified. Agenda-driven activism and partisan anger are not such legitimate exceptions, it seems to me. In short, and as a general rule, if you can’t keep a secret, don’t work in a field in which certain forms of secrecy are an important feature or essential mechanism of the work to be done. If your heart easily overwhelms your rational judgment and sense of professional responsibility, don’t work in a field in which dispassionate professionalism and the honor system are indispensable to the work.
