When is it enough to know what we're losing?

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” - Ben Franklin -

essential
• adjective 1 fundamental; central. 2 absolutely necessary

liberty
• noun (pl. liberties) 1 the state of being free from oppression or imprisonment. 2 a right or privilege. 3 the power or scope to act as one pleases. 4 informal a presumptuous remark or action.

safety
• noun (pl. safeties) 1 the condition of being safe. 2 before another noun denoting something designed to prevent injury or damage: a safety barrier. 3 US informal a condom.

Am I the only one who learned you can’t use the word itself when defining a word??

safe
• adjective 1 protected from danger or risk. 2 not causing or leading to harm or injury. 3 (of a place) affording security or protection. 4 often derogatory cautious and unenterprising: a safe choice. 5 (of an assertion, verdict, bet, etc.) based on good reasons or evidence and not likely to be proved wrong. 6 informal excellent.

In mulling this idea over (thanks, Rob) it occurs to me that far too few people have even a vague understanding what these words actually mean either for themselves or for the greater community they live in. With the Patriot Act and Homeland Security (what a joke) becoming a permanent part of our lives, I feel compelled to point out what I believe should be obvious and apparently isn’t…at least not to the majority of people I run into from day to day…at least in as often as it comes up in conversation (not all that) most of the opinions (if indeed any are held) I have encountered lean towards the ‘well, if it’ll make us safer then I’m for it’ brand of stupidity.

There is no such thing as safety! Neither on the grand nor on the common levels and, the sooner you accept that and move on, the sooner you can start paying attention to the things you can actually have some impact on. Let me repeat that – there is nothing you can do to keep the crazy person from killing you if that is what he is intent on doing, nothing you can do to keep the drunk idiot from running you over, the fanatic suicide bomber from blowing you up, the hungry sea monster from eating you, the nasty storm from destroying everything you hold dear, the random acts of god that make puddles into death traps – nothing but sheer blind luck and luck cannot be used to plug the leaks in any boat-it will desert you as soon as save you and you’ve just got to accept that’s how it’s gonna be. If it’s your turn to go to the bottom – you’re gonna go, accept that and move on…it’s not really all that difficult. Do what you reasonably can and don’t think about it anymore. In other words – don’t be stupid but don’t dwell on it.

That we have been systematically beaten into a state where we’re told and we accept that it makes sense to allow our government to arrest people and hold them indefinitely on nothing more substantial than suspicion – doesn’t even have to be a reasonable suspicion…makes me very, very scared - what is this supposed to save us from again?

Safety is an idea as much as anything, an intangible – an illusion-and illusions only have power if you believe in them. None of us can say we know what the future holds (I’m sorry; I have to say I like to believe in the possibility of prescience but I have rarely seen anything to suggest it really exists in any useful form), we can’t predict disasters (outside some very limited parameters), and we certainly are incapable of convincing people it really is a good idea to get out of the way when something bad is coming – and that’s fine, it’s their choice to take the risk– I’m just saying – you can’t make everyone, indeed anyone, safe no matter how hard you try and no matter how many liberties you trample while you're at it.

As for ‘essential liberty’ how many Americans would say that’s something they’d be willing to give up? Our freedom is our catch-phrase, right? Isn’t that part of what this country is supposed to stand for? And yet we’re trading it in every day for the illusion of safety (and it’s not even a convincing one) with every vote that keeps our current regime in place…every voice that isn't raised against the stupidity is a silent vote to support it. An this is not to say a different regime wouldn’t continue to try chase us to ground and, having cornered us with dire pronouncements, use our fear of the possibility of pain and destruction to convince we made a good trade…hmmm, one illusion for another I suppose, when it comes down to it. The point is, we sit back quietly and take it and when does that stop? What is liberty if not an idea? What does it mean to say an idea is essential to our way of life? What does it say when we allow our lawmakers to systematically destroy an essential part of that life? How will we know when the last pieces have been sacrificed to the illusion of safety? When will we notice that we can't get it back? When will the illusion shatter and leave us with nothing?