Issue 29.14
Security and Freedom – two things that everyone wants; they contribute to and reinforce each other. Why, then, did Benjamin Franklin famously say, “They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”? The principle of truth here is that we desire both ideals to the greatest extent we can create, but if we allow the destruction or diminution of one, we will eventually create the destruction of the other.
Let us take as an example the reaction of many to the events of September 11, 2001. It was a terrible tragedy with many lost and damaged lives and the creation of fear where little had been before. Disruption of travel and distrust of people of Arabic heritage followed almost immediately. Financial markets reacted negatively and almost everyone experienced some disruptions in their lives. Then the politicians got involved. We saw new laws and policies and impassioned speeches that basically said, “We need to protect everyone and, to do so, we must remove some of your freedoms. Sorry, but that’s the way it has to be or we will get attacked again.” Most Americans are well acquainted with making sacrifices to create a better life and most of us were willing to go along with some inconveniences. In the heat of the moment however, we allowed “essential Liberty” to be compromised.
The perpetrators of these attacks sought to inflict damage and fear on us, but they have succeeded also in getting us to surrender many of our freedoms and put many other freedoms in danger because of those in the halls of power who believe we must be protected from ourselves, not just protected from those who intend us harm. In the name of “security”, we now have many restrictions on us that would have otherwise been unthinkable and should still be unacceptable.
You can refer to my article on “Statism vs. Liberty” for an explanation of the basic approaches to governance, but suffice it to say that those who believe that more control of the people is the way to make their lives better (or to benefit those in control), have used this ongoing fear to create the following losses of freedom and assaults on liberty:
Your banker has to collect mounds of personal data on you before they can “grant” you a bank account, even if they know you personally. Your accounts can be seized by the government without trial in certain circumstances.
Your phone, email, Facebook and other personal communication is accessed by many government and private groups.
Most public security cameras can be accessed to track your movements and activities.
Citizens of our country are scanned, photographed, groped and sometimes detained by our own government (TSA) when they try to travel. We have to be careful not to joke or say certain things near airports or other travel stations.
We can be questioned or even incarcerated if anyone makes an anonymous call to government agencies indicating we may be doing something wrong.
Any one of us (even citizens) can be arrested and held indefinitely without trial, charges or representation and can be restricted from even talking with our families or ministers. This can happen if the government even suspects we may be involved with or associating with people who may be involved with or associated with terrorists.
US citizens can be killed by our government without trial or opportunity of defending ourselves if we are deemed to be a terrorist. Those who homeschool, those who protest, those who store food, those who are active politically or have served in the military (among other indicators) are considered possible terrorists.
Many of these restrictions might make sense when applied to foreign nationals, but certainly not when imposed upon our own citizens. These losses of freedom ought not to be, and we as a people should insist that our legislators stop this abuse of power.
Lynn West is a thinker, a teacher and a patriot. You can reach him through email at forgingthefuture2021@gmail.com or through this newspaper. Liberty is a state of being which must be continually created. These articles can help all of us discover the ways we can contribute to that outcome.