Americans Are Starting to Wake Up from their Fear-Induced Haze
“Those who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
– Ben Franklin
The Founding Fathers valued privacy over safety. Indeed, the Revolutionary War was largely started to stop the use of spying by the British. Background here. In other words, the Founding Fathers gave up their safe life with little freedom to strive for real freedom.
The American people got spooked after 9/11, even though 9/11 was entirely foreseeable … and even the chair of the 9/11 Commission said that the attack was preventable.
But we are now remembering that liberty is more important than some mythical concept of 100% guaranteed safety.
A new AP-GfK poll released yesterday finds:
Americans are increasingly placing personal privacy ahead of being kept safe from terrorists, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. More than 60 percent of respondents said they value privacy over anti-terror protections.
It’s about time.
