General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Like it or Not, Bradley Manning is a Traitor [View all]cascadiance
(19,537 posts)... since in many cases like Mandela's those that are convicted of a "crime" are later to be found to be persecuted by a system that protects wrongdoers and goes after those that try to point to their wrongdoing. Now whether we have a government like South Aftrica's is not the issue. The fact that circumstances change, and that later someone like Mandela was found to have been put in prison for political reasons and therefore can later live a life free from that "conviction" when those outside recognize the injustices and correct the system to change it.
As I note, our system now is persecuting those outside the power structure for doing whistleblowing or just challenging the system's current unfairness. I would put Aaron Schwartz also in that latter category too. Although not a whistleblower, he was recognizing the way the system was rigged to reward only those who are wealthy with knowledge that should be something that all could profit from. Even if he perhaps didn't go about it completely in the right way, he was facing penalties way too harsh for what he did, and took his life rather than face those penalties. And those penalties are especially harsh when you consider how others that abuse our laws like banksters (who either break them, or pay government officials to change laws to benefit them to allow them to carry on corruption unpunished).