Sacrifice for Safety
An excerpt from Dr. Mark Caleb Smith’s article in Cedarville University’s The Torch.
While demagogues rely on prejudice and ignorance to gain power, other political leaders create anxiety within the population by envisioning a bleak future, one where chaos reigns or where physical harm is around every conceivable corner. This approach plays upon our fear of an uncertain future, one that might threaten our financial security or our physical safety. Since 9/11, our government, led by both political parties, has used our fears for our personal safety to restrict our rights and liberties. Previously unheard of invasions of personal privacy are now routinely justified simply to protect us from terrorists. While we have all heard stories of grandmothers being humiliated during pre-flight security checks, we have also gladly cooperated as uniformed agents X-ray us and pat us down. We have learned to passively watch as complete strangers rifle through our most personal belongings, even after they have been run through sophisticated detection equipment. Due to national security concerns, government routinely surveils us and our vehicles, monitors our cellphones, and searches and seizes our electronic communication without probable cause. Our fear for our own safety has forced us to humbly sit by as government’s reach into our lives continues to lengthen and strengthen.The general response I hear, when raising these issues with students and others, is, “Well, if you aren’t breaking the law, you don’t have anything to worry about.” We are, indeed, a bit different from Patrick Henry, who, when confronted with an invasion of his economic liberties (“no taxation without representation”), bellowed, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Our generation’s glib response to governmental encroachments that would have made Samuel Adams pick up a musket is more along the lines of, “Whatever, just as long as I can make my flight and check out the new episode of Glee on my smartphone.”
This issue of The Torch can be found here.
