My previous response argued that question 7 (security cameras in public places) was false, and I have not changed my view. So instead I will answer 1. Those who would exchange freedom for security deserve neither.
I would argue against this. It is certainly true that if you give freedom for security, those to whom you gave your rights will most probably use their own new abilities not to make your life safer, but in fact the opposite. As you give rights, the amount of laws and therefore the ability to break them becomes larger. Rendering you possibly safer from your fellow citizens, but not from your own government. Examples of this in real life exist in dictatorships such as Hitler's Germany, or even more so France during the 1790s. The book itself gives us a slightly exaggerated sample in its telescreens and thought police. As panic grew due to wars, tighter measures were taken in Oceania to control big brother's subjects, leading to a society where nobody would really last their entire life without vanishing, as seen in the example of Parsons.
So I believe it is logical to assume that if you give freedom for security you will get neither, but not correct to say that you SHOULD NOT get either. Simply because you have made a foolish act does not mean that you should pay for it; and this is all that giving freedom for security really is: a misguided and probably misinformed or ignorant decision made by a panicking population.
Eric Lombardo
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2 comments:
I think your response is very intriguing. You have some valid points, but I disagree with your statement about governments becoming corrupt and paranoid. Simply by living in a society we have given up some freedoms. The fact that we have laws with punishments attached proves it. Yet our leaders haven't become obsessed with catching every person who jaywalks or lets their dog of their leash. Constitutions prevent that. A government without a constitution seems much more susceptible to paranoia about losing power.
~Audrey Musselman-Brown
Yeah, like Audrey said, I think you make a good point that a lack of freedom is, in fact, unsafe. But I also think that part of really having freedom in the first place means that you have the ability to give it up if you so choose.
-Genna
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