The author points to some inconsistencies in the way that the Empire directors are dealing with the current generation of whistleblowers compared to real spies and subversives. The comparison is apt, but her interpretation is off the mark. This illustrates how a thorough ruling class indoctrination makes invisible any kind of class considerations and leads one to a false interpretation. The following is the conclusion of her article:
What we are witnessing is a generational clash, not a clash of ideologies. The oldsters still be believe in the Cold War narrative (or even “cowboys and Indians”?) of goodies, baddies and existential threats. The digital generations have grown up in the wake of 9/11 and all the associated governmental over-reaction — war crimes go unreported and untried, real civil liberties are an historic artefact, and the global population lives under Big Brother surveillance. Why on earth is anyone, really, surprised when young people of honour and idealism try to take a stand and make a difference?With all major countries in the world under capitalist rule, there is no longer a threat posed by any major country such as the Soviet Union to the system of capitalism. Now it's all about competition between ruling elites, and as such the conflicts between them are much like any sports competition: fouls (spying) are permitted and there are orderly rules for dealing with them.
Nowadays what we are seeing is a world dominated by global capitalist elites versus their own populations. Class wars have now gone global, and ordinary people and heroic individuals are increasingly aware of this and are fighting back. We ordinary people throughout the world are now the enemy of the global capitalist elites. Therefore, this apparent inconsistency is not due to inter-generational orientations, but to the fact that capitalism has gone global, and its inherent component of class war likewise. This is precisely why the US has trained and armed so many police forces across the world to deal with domestic insurrections. Have you noticed that anti-riot police all look and act the same the world over?
There is an inter-generational factor present that has produced the recent whistleblowers--Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, and Edward Snowden--who were doubtlessly influenced by a "geek" sub-culture where the internet is seen as "free, and which wants to guarantee that it will remain free without Big Brother watching over their shoulders." However, inter-generational differences do not explain why the government is so aggressively going after them.
(Later) I suddenly realized that she was a former British MI5 agent, and this required an additional comment. The Brits are not innoculated against seeing class war as are Americans. And having been in the MI5 service, she is no doubt very sophisticated about matters political. Could she consciously be engaging in damage control over the West's aggressive pursuit of these whistleblowers? Or is my conspiracy-infested mind merely acting up again? You decide.