[Discussion] Which one is more important to you,National Security or Personal privacy?

[Aim64C]

Dude, i was joking back then.

Also, I think both are pretty equally important but i think constant terrorist threats slightly tilt the scale in security's favor.

The errant assumption is that a government is going to be able to stop a terrorist attack by rifling through your information any better than a free society of responsible individuals would be able to stop a threat in progress.

When I was younger, I used to be more of the opinion that "You can't have your cake and eat it, too" - with regards to privacy versus security - meant that we needed to back our national security efforts.

But I've come to realize that the notion was inverted. You can't be secured and have your security, too.

Another one of those things I realize, later in life, that my dad was a damned prophet and genius. Not only did he see this shit coming fifty years ahead of time, he knew how to word things to 'slide' right through the web of delusions spun by public education.

Anyway - it's really pretty simple. While it is true that you cannot have your privacy and -be secured- by the government (as society tends to demand... when bad things happen, they ask why the government wasn't there to stop it) at the same time. It is also true that you cannot -be secured- by another entity and at the same be responsible for your own security.

"We are going to need you to hand over your firearms."

"Uh... Why?"

"We will keep you safe."

"Uhm... Okay."

*Years later*

"Hey. Your property taxes are due."

"I just paid you guys."

"The rates went up."

"You can't raise the rates after the fact."

"You have a pretty daughter."

"Like hell!"

"She looks rather pale, though. Are you sure you're taking good care of her? Perhaps the Department of Child Services..."

"You're not going to extort me."

"Try and stop me. You live in my town. You work in my town. You reap the benefits of what my town has to offer. My boys stay up late every night keeping the hooligans at bay, and what are you going to do if they come storming over that flimsy fence of yours? .... That's right. You're going to call me."

You don't think that's the way the world works?

Read some history. It essentially -defined- much of European history even to this day, and there are recorded incidents in American history where local Sheriffs attempted it before encountering a literal armed revolt.

We are responsible for our own security. No one else is. When seconds count, the police are only minutes away. It sounds tempting to believe the argument that we'd be over-run with terrorists and 'crazies' who wish to do harm to society if we did not have the Police State to keep things in check ... but ... can you point to any point in history where that was the case?

The times most marked by terrorism and domestic violence are those marked by the strongest and most authoritarian of systems.

 

[LED ZEPPELIN]

people who say national security are ignorant.