Ed Snowden said his greatest fear was that after his stunning revelations, some of which are still being clarified, nothing would change in the privacy debate.

But the real changing of minds might be among libertarians in the US.

If Snowden turns out to be a defector, it will show how an ideology that appears to be purified American virtue, taken to its extreme, can hurt the US.

But it’s not just Snowden “whistleblowing” US secrets to the Chinese. Libertarianism is a philosophy that urges Americans, looking at their decaying bridges and failing schools, to see the possibility of government intervention to remedy these problems as the biggest risk. That’s a sure path for US decline – all in the name of a political philosophy that steadfastly ignores society (or in Snowden’s case: country) at the expense of the individual.