Trading Liberty for Safety

Raven Clabough

If we allow this pattern to continue, Franklin will not only have been wise, but a prophet.

I often wonder how the United States will be remembered in textbooks and in history classes centuries, or even decades, from now. Wherein will the blame lie for the decline of a once great prosperous and free nation? Because, let’s face it, long gone are the days of a limited Constitutional republic, and in its place is a Big Brother Leviathan that has slowly stripped away our liberties and freedoms, all under the promise of security in their stead.

But how, one wonders, did such a dramatic transformation take place, almost entirely with the permission of the American people? The answer is simple: the government has sold us fear, and we have purchased it with our freedoms.

America’s Founding Fathers slaved for years over constitutional debate in order to conceive of a government wherein power is scarcely centralized. The goal was to prevent absolute power from corrupting the individuals in power by limiting the authority that is assigned to those individuals.

But government is inherently self-serving and self-perpetuating, and therefore the American republic has been under attack virtually since its construction.

And those seeking to secure more power became well aware that they would have to chip away at the strict limitations set forth in the United States Constitution by convincing the American people that the Constitution is a living, breathing document that must conform to the times. And these times, according to the powers that be, are characterized by constant threats and fear.

This week alone, we are delivered a healthy dose of fear by the mainstream media. ABC News reported yesterday that al-Qaeda’s “Inspire” magazine has called for more jihadi attacks on Western targets, attacks which include starting huge forest fires on American soil with timed explosives.

CNN recently did a full report on the nature of home-grown terrorism, careful to point out that home-grown terrorists are not just Muslims. In other words, they can be any one of us. Such reports help foster vigilante anti-terror campaigns like the ones we see in New York-See something, Say something. Right?

Reports that Iran was in the process of nuclear proliferation had some frightened individuals calling for war against Iran, though later reports revealed that Iran’s uranium enrichment was nowhere near the grade necessary for a nuclear bomb.

Cries of “Stop Joseph Kony” circulated throughout Hollywood and social media sites like Facebook, provoking some to call for the American military to launch full-scale efforts in the Uganda to stop a man who hasn’t been seen for six years. It just so happened that George Soros was one of the funders of the Stop Joseph Kony campaign, and Soros happens to have oil interests in Uganda. Just coincidence, I’m sure.

Besides these, we are inundated with numerous stories of alleged “thwarted” terror attacks, and are fed reports that question the security of our bridges, our highways, our schools, our homes, etc, the list goes on.

You see, the American people were sold a narrative-there are bad guys over on the other side of the world that hate us for our lifestyles, for our liberties, for simply being American. And we are not safe without the government’s intervention. Yes, we may have to hand over our First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and even Tenth Amendments, but isn’t that price worth our security?

In short, the answer is no. Part of the problem is that we are being entirely misled. Despite assertions that the United States is a target for terrorism because of our freedoms, the truth is that the United
States has been targeted because of our federal government’s foreign policy.

GOP presidential contender Ron Paul is one of the few people in a position of power who is willing to admit as much.

When asked about 9/11, Ron Paul responded that US foreign policy was a "major contributing factor. Have you ever read the reasons they attacked us? They attacked us because we've been over there; we've been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We've been in the Middle East –I think Reagan was right. We don't understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. So right now we're building an embassy in Iraq that's bigger than the Vatican. We're building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting. We need to look at what we do from the perspective of what would happen if somebody else did it to us. "

In other words, the government creates the problem, and then steps in to rescue us from that problem. And all we have to do is hand over our freedoms. Accept being sexually molested at our airports, or having the government listen in on our phone calls, or determine what is acceptable free speech, and just how we are allowed to assemble and protest publicly.

And just as people begin to wake up from their stupor and question the loss of these liberties, we are once against reminded of the ominous threat of terrorism, and the people are put back to sleep.

Some story or another conveniently makes its way into the mainstream media just in time to shake the American people of their sudden onset of critical thinking, and before long, we are once again giving away our God-given rights and asking for more government protection, at any cost.

Enter the Patriot Act, the National Defense Authorization Act, the National Defense Resources Preparedness Order, etc. If the government is honest, they would simply admit, “We will protect you by controlling you.”

Meanwhile, we are no safer today than we were before 9/11.

Despite the complete loss of Fourth Amendment rights at the airports, we still hear analysts address the many security flaws that take place on a daily basis at those airports, for example. Cupcakes get confiscated but martial arts swords skate by.

The Bush and the Obama administrations have continued to embark on the very same foreign policies that have made us prime targets in the first place. We continue to intervene in the business of other nations, and no matter how hard we try, we never seem to be on the right side of any conflict. We supported Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak for 20 years before we supported the rebel forces that deposed him. We claim to support Israel, but we continue to fund Israel’s enemies simultaneously. The list goes on.

No, we are not safer. But one thing is for certain. We are less free, and more indebted, both to our government and to the world.

The moral of the story is this: the government is selling fear wholesale, but it’s not without cost. You are selling your Constitutional rights in return for a false sense of security, selling what was once a great republic down the river.

Ben Franklin warned of this when he said that those who willingly give up liberty for security deserve neither.

If we allow this pattern to continue, Franklin will not only have been wise, but a prophet.
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Illustration: The Road to Serfdom – in Cartoons
Article published here: Wide Awake News via BlacklistedNews
URL: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2012/05/05/trading-liberty-for-safety