Pollster John Zogby identifies young Americans aged 18 to 29 as “First Globals” and “the most outward looking and accepting generation in American history”. They are cool about racial and sexual diversity, have open attitudes to the rest of the world, have travelled, have foreign friends and are conversant with international politics. They reject perpetual war, are comfortable with the computing age, but dislike the secrecy and snooping that has become a hallmark of modern life.

Thus, people like Snowden and Manning are regarded as champions of human rights. Forced to choose between allegiance to the flag and uniform, and loyalty to the ideals the flag is supposed to defend, they choose the latter. Their support for the whistle-blowers stems from the fact that they don’t believe the the whistle-blowers have let America down. They believe they had to act because America was letting itself down. (Adapted from an article in The Guardian Weekly by Gary Younge, 21.6.13)

If this is true I like this “First Global” generation! Good luck to them! Epicurus would applaud.