by Greg Slack

Created on: March 10, 2010   Last Updated: March 11, 2010

There is an old saying that fits here. It states; “if you have to ask, you can't afford it.” I think it can also mean if you have to ask if national security is more important than civil rights, you don't deserve either one.

Benjamin Franklin once said: “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

I think those words were never more true than they are today. Indeed this was a warning as well as a statement of fact. Moreover I believe anyone who tries to tell me I must give up this or that right so they can keep me safe, has no desire for my safety but rather is own desire for control.

Throughout history this kind of subtle tactic has been used by every would-be conqueror or dictator, and I am quite sure it is no different today. Are we so naive to think that greed, desires for power, and the need for some to control is no longer an issue?

That we have somehow become so much more advanced these primal things are no longer factors in government or in its people? I don't believe this, and there is so much evidence against such a claim it's foolhardy to believe it.

Greed and power serve no master other than themselves. Power desires power, greed desires greed and nothing else will appease either one. As long as humans have banded together some of those humans wanted to control their brethren. Be it a belief in whats best for all, a desire for power, or a simple matter of wealth, all led to the same ends eventually.

Remember the saying; the road to hell is paved with good intentions? Well it applies well to questions like this. Napoleon didn't start out a usurper of power or a conqueror.

By all records he was a simple gunnery officer in the military at one time. Hardly the place one would plot the take over of all Europe. He like so many others I am sure, most likely started out wanting to do his best for his country and further himself. Once he got into power things changed.

Once again power begets power, and Napoleon wanted ever more of it. I am quite sure that even in the end he did not see himself a Tyrant but rather a savior of his country. I am also quite sure he or his cohorts sold the idea of safety to ensure freedom often.

Hitler also used national security to trample freedoms under foot. His National Socialists Party sold a fear of other socialist infiltrators threatening the country to gain power.

Once in control he began to take away rights and freedoms of many citizens in the name of national security and preservation of German citizens. And we all know how he treated those who were not deemed fit to be German citizens in his eyes.

We can name dictators, conquerors, usurpers and emperors one after another and find virtually the same pattern or the beginning of it. And in all of it we will find a use of security or preservation to enslave or control a people. Modern technology or education will not change this pattern today, it never did in the past.

When ever national security requires the loss of civil liberties or rights of the people that comprise that nation, then we must ask what is the purpose of that nation. Is it for the people or for itself? I believe it is for itself when it claims rights of its people, and history proves this.

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