I have seen Edward Snowden compared to Jason Bourne, Joan of Arc and now Spartacus.
Spartacus (Greek: Σπάρτακος, Spártakos; Latin: Spartacus) (c. 109â71 BC) was a Thracian gladiator, who, along with the Gauls Crixus, Oenomaus, Castus and Gannicus, was one of the slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Little is known about Spartacus beyond the events of the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes contradictory and may not always be reliable. All sources agree that he was a former gladiator and an accomplished military leader.
This rebellion, interpreted by some as an example of oppressed people fighting for their freedom against a slave-owning oligarchy, has been an inspiration to many political thinkers, and has been featured in literature, television, and film. Although not contradicted by classical historians, no historical account mentions that the goal of the rebels was to end slavery in the Roman Republic, nor do any of the actions of rebel leaders, who themselves committed numerous atrocities, seem specifically aimed at ending slavery.
Snowden, to my knowledge, does not claim to be Spartacus. He did not say "I am Spartacus".
But someone on the internet did. And not just one, someone, but many someones. If you doubt it well then get off your ass and search the internet, I bet Google would return thousands of links if you searched Edward Snowden is Spartacus.
We could deal with this overreaching by laughing our asses off, as the claim is just ridiculous on its face, and one needs a sense of humor, right? I could not find one thing funny about that statement this evening. I found it infuriating and insulting to see a semi-mythological Classical Greek icon who was prepared to sacrifice limb, family, and life, not to mentions the lives of thousands of his followers, being dragged down to the level of a guy who now resides in comfort in that bastion of freedom and liberty, Russia, under the non-tyrant, Vlad the Putin.
And then there are the Joan of Arc comparisons.
Have you any idea who Joan of Arc was? Have you any idea what dangers she faced? The sacrifices she made? "The Maid of Orléans" was the Edward Snowden of her time? Really?
Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d'Arc, IPA: [ʒan daʁk]; ca. 1412[5] â 30 May 1431), nicknamed "The Maid of Orleans" (French: La Pucelle d'Orléans), is considered a heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. She was born to a peasant family at Domrémy in north-east France. Joan said she received visions of the Archangel Michael, Saint Margaret and Saint Catherine instructing her to support Charles VII and recover France from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent Joan to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence after the siege was lifted in only nine days. Several additional swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims. On 23 May 1430, she was captured at Compiègne by the English-allied Burgundian faction, was later handed over to the English, and then put on trial by the pro-English Bishop of Beauvais Pierre Cauchon on a variety of charges, was convicted on 30 May 1431 and burned at the stake when she was about 19 years old.
Twenty-five years after her execution, an inquisitorial court authorized by Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, pronounced her innocent, and declared her a martyr. Joan of Arc was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. She is one of the nine secondary patron saints of France, along with St. Denis, St. Martin of Tours, St. Louis, St. Michael, St. Remi, St. Petronilla, St. Radegund and St. Thérèse of Lisieux
Joan of Arc has been a popular figure in cultural history since the time of her death, and many famous writers, filmmakers and composers have created works about her. Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc have continued in films, theatre, television, video games, music, and performances to this day.
And sure, this Snowden character was some sort of CIA dude and then an NSA contractor paid to clean up databases and maintain thumbdrives, but Jason F'n Bourne? Oh come on, Mr. & Mrs. Internet, About 38,900 results in 0.29 seconds?
Jason Bourne has a tormented past, which continues to influence him throughout his lifetime. Jason Bourne is but one of many aliases used by David Webb. Webb is a career foreign service officer and a specialist in Far Eastern affairs. Before the events in The Bourne Identity, Webb had a Thai wife named Dao and two children named Joshua and Alyssa in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Webb's wife and two children were inadvertently killed during the Vietnam War when a fighter plane strayed into Cambodia, dropped two bombs and strafed a spot near the Mekong River. However, unknown to Bourne, Joshua survived. Due to Cambodia's neutrality in the war, every nation disclaimed the plane, and, therefore, no one took responsibility for the incident. Having nothing left to live for, Webb went to Saigon and, under the careful guidance of Alex Conklin, ended up training for an elite Top Secret Special Forces unit called Medusa. Within that select organization Webb was known only by his code name, Delta One.
Medusa
David Webb's life was slowly consumed by his membership in Medusa. Webb was recruited into Medusa during the Vietnam War by friend and CIA officer Alexander Conklin after the violent deaths of Webb's wife and children. Webb was infuriated by both the utter injustice and randomness of his loss, and he sought revenge by joining Medusa. Initially, Medusa was designed to infiltrate parts of Northern Vietnam, and kill suspected members of the Viet Cong and its collaborators. Medusa was considered an assassination team or death squad. Each member of Medusa was paid for their work performing assassinations for the United States Government.
The members of Medusa were all criminals who were led by a man called Delta. Delta ran Medusa with an iron fist;[citation needed] he became well known for his ruthlessness, his disregard for orders, and his disturbing success rate on his missions, resulting in the kidnapping of his brother, U.S. Army Lieutenant Gordon Webb, during his tour of duty in Saigon.
During the mission to save David Webb's brother, an original "Medusa" team member named Jason Charles Bourne, was discovered to be a double agent who alerted a large number of North Vietnamese soldiers to their whereabouts. When Delta found Bourne after killing his way through the North Vietnamese, he simply executed Bourne in the jungles of Tam Quan. Bourne had compromised the secret rescue of Gordon Webb. Bourne's murder by Delta was never exposed due to the Top Secret status of Medusa.
Operation Treadstone
Years later, a black ops arm of the CIA was formed to eliminate the notorious Carlos the Jackal and called Treadstone Seventy-One, named after a building on New York's Seventy-First Street, and Webb was called up by the creator of Treadstone and Medusa, David Abbott, who was nicknamed The Monk, (short for The Silent Monk of Covert Operations) to be its principal agent. At this point, Webb (Delta) takes the identity of Jason Bourne due to the actual Bourne's status as MIA in the war as well as the fact that Bourne was in reality a ruthless killer with a long criminal record. The point of all this was to turn Jason Bourne into something more than he really was, a contract assassin who would be known all over the world for terminating the lives of just about anyone. The assassin's alias was Cain. The reasoning for creating such a myth was to create competition for a well-known assassin named Carlos, or Carlos the Jackal (real name Ilich RamÃrez Sánchez) who at that time was considered the world's best and most famous assassin. The name Cain was chosen because it had some significance for what he was doing. During Vietnam, Cain was used instead of Charlie in the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot...) because Charlie became synonymous with Viet Cong. So Delta dropped back one letter to Cain, which stood for Charlie. In Spanish, Charlie is Carlos; Carlos was Venezuelan. The myth of Cain was created by having Cain take credit for any well-publicized killings that took place in Asia, and later in Europe, regardless of the circumstances. By creating this myth, Cain was to drive the reclusive Carlos out in the open "long enough to put a bullet in his head". To add insult to Carlos's name, Cain stole the credit for Carlos's kills, even when Cain had no part in them.
I am repeating these questions that I asked once before: Do you think so much of Edward Snowden? Or is it that you think so little of our ancient heroes and fictional characters?
