So you give your 16 year-old son Justin permission to drive your car one night, with the understanding that he is to go with a group of friends to a local mall to watch a movie and get a bite to eat. You trust your son, so you rest easy that night and turn in early in your Los Angeles home, confident that Justin will operate within the guidelines given him.
The next morning, Jake, one of Justin’s friends, is unexpectedly at your door. He wants to talk to you. The two of you sit down. He was with your son last night. The group did not go to the mall. Instead, they drove to Las Vegas. Got a room at the Bellagio. Spent half the night in the casino, and the rest partying with prostitutes in the hotel room. Jake was part of the group and ended up in Las Vegas, but instead of joining Justin and the others at the casino he decided to take a bus back home to L.A., sleep for a few hours, knock on your door and come clean.
You are deeply disappointed by your son’s dishonesty and his abuse of your trust. You thank Jake for bringing Justin’s misbehavior to your attention.
Later on that morning, Justin wakes up, checks his phone and realizes that Jake ratted him out, not only personally and directly to you, his father, but also publicly on Twitter. He stews about it for a while, unsure about how to proceed. He finally decides on a 2-pronged action plan. First, he tweets that Jake has broken the code of friendship and should immediately be ostracized. Second, he comes to you and says, “I realize that I went a bit overboard last night. What I did was OK, because I know what I’m doing and nobody got hurt, but I recognize that it’s not enough for me to be comfortable with my actions; you need to feel comfortable with my actions as well. I also recognize that I may need more oversight. Anyway, I have a few ideas about ways in which I can improve things, and I will implement them as I see fit.”
You say, “I never thought you would betray my trust this way, particularly since when you were younger you specifically criticized this type of behavior. In fact, your strong opinions against abuses of power were instrumental in making me feel comfortable about loaning you my car. I’m counting on you to make the necessary corrections, but in the meantime both you and I owe a debt of gratitude to your friend Jake, who called our attention to this situation. Were it not for him, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. Thanks to Jake you’re at least addressing the issue and taking actions you yourself agree are necessary and important.”
Justin’s response: “No, I was totally going to take these actions anyway. Jake is neither my friend nor yours. He’s our enemy and if I ever get a hold of him I will beat him to a pulp.”
“Justin”, you say, “you really must think I’m stupid”.
Cast
Jake …............................................................................ Edward Snowden
Justin ….......................................................................... President Barack Obama
You (the father) ….........................................................The American People
