Security Leads to Freedom

[jeffd]

Glen Greenwald blogged today about a NYT op-ed written by David Brooks. Sadly the original is behind the Times paywall.

Here’s the part Greenwald quoted:

In short, in the 1970s, normal, nonideological people were right to think that their future prospects might be dimmed by a stultifying state. People were right to believe that government was undermining personal responsibility. People were right to have what Tyler Cowen, in a brilliant essay in Cato Unbound, calls the “liberty vs. power” paradigm burned into their minds — the idea that big government means less personal liberty.

But today, many of those old problems have receded or been addressed. Today the big threats to people’s future prospects come from complex, decentralized phenomena: Islamic extremism, failed states, global competition, global warming, nuclear proliferation, a skills-based economy, economic and social segmentation. . . .

Normal, nonideological people are less concerned about the threat to their freedom from an overweening state than from the threats posed by these amorphous yet pervasive phenomena. The “liberty vs. power” paradigm is less germane. It’s been replaced in the public consciousness with a “security leads to freedom” paradigm. . .

The “security leads to freedom” paradigm doesn’t end debate between left and right, it just engages on different ground. It is oriented less toward negative liberty (How can I get the government off my back?) and more toward positive liberty (Can I choose how to lead my life?).

I’ll echo Greenwald’s point because I think it bears repeating: The old school Reagan/Goldwater style of conservatism is effectively dead in the Republican party.

[Flowers]

I think that it is funny that people can be so stupid as to pretty much walk into the business end of a two hundred year old, well publicized zinger by a founding fucking father of motherfucking America.

“Those who would sacrifice Freedom for Security deserve neither.”
“Uncle” Ben Franklin -Web Of Spiderman #37

[Midnight_Son]

War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery.

[bago]

Total Information Awareness.

[Euri]

I think that it is funny that people can be so stupid as to pretty much walk into the business end of a two hundred year old, well publicized zinger by a founding fucking father of motherfucking America.

“Those who would sacrifice Freedom for Security deserve neither.”
“Uncle” Ben Franklin -Web Of Spiderman #37

That zinger should actually read, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

In this case, Ben would also probably have said “Fools multiply folly” and “Ill customs and bad advice are seldom forgotten”