heads I win, tails you lose

So here "Allahpundit," reflecting the rapidly-hardening conventional wisdom, provides a masterful example of squaring the "damage done" circle: Edward Snowden is telling us things that we all already knew, but he's doing so in a way that nevertheless damages the credibility of the United States. It's breathtaking, really, the sheer illogic, the simultaneous adoption of a yawning countenance and an enraged one, and the relentless focus on personality and individual character, rather than grappling with the actual issues at hand. And this particular pundit merely reflects the attitudes of the establishment media that is far more comfortable celebrating power than questioning it.

Anyone hollering about this, of course, can be disarmed with very simple questions. Does a country have the right to spy on another by infiltrating its electronic communication through technological deception? If the answer is yes, then the people complaining about this must abandon any pretense of judgment towards China for doing so to us. They are very unlikely to do so. If the answer is no, then the people complaining must accept that Snowden has exposed an immoral and likely illegal program undertaken by the United States. They should celebrate Snowden's exposure of the United States's bad behavior. They are very unlikely to do this, as well Either way, you cannot rationally excuse the one and judge the other.

Now I don't doubt that many people will find a way to excuse what the United States has done and rail against China for doing the same. The essential hypocrisy of childish nationalism is something you just have to live with, in today's world. But it would be nice if the people who embrace it would be forced to actually talk their way through it, to own up to the fact that their moral convictions are not in fact convictions at all but are purely dependent on who exactly is being considered. It's the same way with the "this is devastating to us/but it's no big deal" fandango. If you want to embrace both sides, out of a simple emotionalism that compels you to portray Snowden as both damaging and ineffectual, go ahead, but it would be nice if you admit that's what you're doing.

Snowden has done more than expose the American surveillance state. He's exposed the way in which fidelity to nation trumps the most basic concept of morality, that moral judgments should apply equally regardless of who (or which nation) is being judged.