Monday, October 13, 2008

Liberties and Force

Today's quote comes from Dorthy Thompson a journalist during World War Two.

"When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered."

I'm not sure whether to agree or disagree with this quote, I obviously agree with the first part. If my liberty were taken away by say a bank robber while I was in a bank it would take the use of force by me or the police to gain it back.

However the second part is more complicated; if I choose to give up my right to privacy to the government because of a fear of terrorism how would I get it back? Could I ask them to pass another law giving it back? As shown with the Patriot Act this has proven difficult all though I do hope that one day people will wake up and take back their rights that they have given up during this war on terror. But will that be possible through legitimate channels? And even if on paper we got our Liberties back would the government actually respect them?

1 comment:

Hope said...

I at least in general agree with the second part. When the people just don't care, they don't tend to get liberty back because they won't fight for it.