Virtue ethics states that practicing honesty, dignity, and generosity makes an individual a moral and virtuous person (MacKinnon & Fiala, 2018). From this perspective, Snowden’s action can be viewed as an act of virtue. Using his moral code and the vision of the situation, he preferred to report about numerous violations of basic human rights and the impossibility of such actions (Democracy Now!, n.d.). Moreover, this step was made to avoid or at least minimize such situations in the future, which adds additional value and virtue to this decision. For this reason, American people who are mostly uninformed about such strategies used by the U.S. government should view Snowden as a hero who tries to improve their motherland. However, for the government, Snowden is a traitor who discloses their secrets and shows the world that there are multiple problematic cases and situations.
Cogitating about ethics, Aristotle offered the idea of the golden mean, stating that to be morally good is to be able to preserve the balance between two vices (Zyl, 2018). In other words, it is a mean between excess and deficiency. If you can avoid coming too close to one of them, it means that you will be able to act morally. The given concept applies to the modern world, and I believe it can help to resolve complex ethical dilemmas. For instance, telling all truth to people might hurt them, while lying is also unacceptable. For this reason, it is vital to preserve a balance and remain a morally good person who cares for the people who surround him/her. In such a way, the rule of the golden mean and the virtue ethics cannot be viewed as outdated today.
References
Democracy Now! (n.d.). “You’re being watched”: Edward Snowden emerges as source behind explosive revelations of NSA spying [Video]. YouTube. Web.
MacKinnon, B., & Fiala, A. (2018). Ethics: Theory and contemporary issues (9th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Zyl, L. (2018). Virtue ethics. Routledge.