“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 [2] to stop the use of spying by the British. Background here [3]. 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 [4], and even the chair of the 9/11 Commission said that the attack was preventable [5].
But we are now remembering that liberty is more important than some mythical concept of complete safety.
A new AP-GfK poll released yesterday finds [6]:
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 [7].
In Related News:
Forget Metadata … The NSA Is Spying On EVERYTHING [8]