How much freedom must be given up so the government can protect you?

1. 59

   taburkettposted 10 years ago

   How much freedom must be given up so the government can protect you?
   
   With all the scandals surfacing recently, I am sure everyone would like to know how much freedom you are willing to give up if the government insists they must protect you? 
   
   

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2. 84

   Express10posted 10 years ago

   Call me a cynic but the government did not protect many, many, innocent people in the recent and in the not so recent past and that is a glaring fact. All this "protection" is nothing more than intrusions and snooping. I am not willing or happy to know there are a variety of wide nets being cast that are constantly collecting data on huge numbers of people rather than actual offenders and their aides.
   
   What I do know is that it's highly hypocritical for the politicians to say these things are for protection but they themselves opt out or use executive and other powers to escape the intrusions they force on the masses for the benefit of a very few, if any.

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3. 81

   Attikosposted 10 years ago

   The government isn't protecting us, it's protecting itself. That it demands we sacrifice liberties so that it can is an outrageous offense, itself a criminal act. The answer to your question is that we already have lost too much freedom. We should be unwilling to give up any more at all.

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   1. 84

      Express10posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I am in complete agreement with you.

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4. 0

   JThomp42posted 10 years ago

   In terms of the Big Brother scare scenario, which I think is what you're really asking about, I would not give up very much. The unfortunate reality is that there are people in the world who hate us because of the very freedoms we have. And there are overzealous people in this country who view security as so important that they would take away those freedoms to protect us. By doing so, they are ironically handing the hate-mongers a victory. I am a free man and I do not wish to grant the government the right to control me. Security is important, but not at the expense of my freedom.

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5. 0

   Larry Wallposted 10 years ago

   I do not want to give up any freedoms, but I recognize the need to gather data about suspicious people and in that process, some people who have done nothing or would ever do anything to harm this country get caught within the web.
   
   The government is not listening to my phone calls. It is watching the places I call. If I dial an area code constantly that is the location of a large terrorist cell, they may want to look closer and even talk to me. I have nothing to hide.
   
   I a tried of the 1984 analogies. we do not have cameras in our houses watching our every move. We are free to chose our friends and spouses. We are all not wearing the same uniform and the government is not assigning us with specific tasks.
   
   Has the government gone too far in some cases--yes, without question.
   Has this happened during the past, yes, without question.
   Will the situation be corrected, yes, but it will take time, as new threats are always popping up.
   
   I wrote a Hub about this, but the HP people accused me of using duplicated material, which was documented quotes from the History Channel, which I have since rewritten. It is now waiting for approval from the administrator to be published.  The hub talks about other times throughout our history where our rights were violated but shows how we survived.

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