Rights, Liberty, Safety

"Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-Benjamin Franklin

I dont think it can be put any more simply than that. Trading away fundamental rights in exchange for safety (real or perceived) is perhaps the most foolish thing we can do; many people do it gladly. Surely living in a cage your entire life, with no freedoms whatsoever, would be totally safe. But what sort of life is this in which you are totally safe. I realize the rights that we consider trading away dont result in as obvious or severe prison sentences, but they are prison sentences nonetheless.

For example, suppose we ban the Qur'an. "Who cares?", you may say. It promotes Islam, and perhaps the radicals who hate America so much. Well, for one, if books cause people to kill people, then i should start writing books telling people to give me money. Thats another issue, though. Lets suppose 10 years from now, you suddenly decide you would like to read the Qur'an, for whatever reason or no reason at all. You suddenly realize that you no longer have the right to read whatever you want. The right you traded away so simply a decade earlier has not come back.

The truth is, most rights traded away don't come back, or at least dont come back easily. Think carefully about how much a minuscule increase in safety is worth to you. Some claim that the radical muslims hate us for the free society we embrace. Im not sure if this is true or not, but if it is, trading away your rights lets the radicals win. Perhaps you care so little about your freedoms that you are willing to whore them out for a bit of safety. If you are willing to compromise yourself, so be it. As for me, I dont think anyone should be willing to trade away their freedoms. Ever.