QUOTE (TheGuardian @ May 31 2008, 01:37 AM)personally, "give me liberty or give me death" i choose freedom over protection as many ways as i can (excluding organized military forces)
Such things are easy to say that in the safety of our homes. Will your views remain the same when car/suicide bombings are a daily occurrence? In such scenarios people often want safety before freedom. Even if we take the current political climate on terrorism people are forsaking human rights under the name of national security. As
khael highlights people are not allowed a free trial while others face torture. Sometimes the police are given additional search powers that infringe on our personal freedoms. Then there's the patriot act...
QUOTE (TheGuardian)Plato, however, believed that the only way to a euphoric society was to restrict freedoms.
The founders of America had the opposite feelings (personally i believe B. Franklin was a S*** load smarter that Plato) but both werte brilliant and had well posed arguments for their beliefs.
Ultimate freedom is paralysing. Check out my example with cheese.
Also with freedom comes responsibility. And responsibility is an area that people often forget. If people can't show responsibility to their freedoms they should be restricted. An example people say we are entitled to free speech. If I use this freedom to inspire racial hate I am using my freedom irresponsibility. As a result my freedom should be restricted. So you see although freedoms are good a balance needs to be struck.