Jake Allen’s Ockhamist.com

Do we value our freedom?

The easy answer is yes.  We certainly do not like people telling us what to do.  A slightly more thoughtful response is that we like some of our freedoms.  We like to get Burger King at 2AM, but are willing to put out our cigarettes to do it.  We like to wear clever sayings on our T-shirts, but only during socially appropriate times.  That’s the key to the matter, I think. We don’t really like freedom.  We like certainty.  Like the Hebrews escaping slavery, we prefer the security of the known, rather than the freedom of the unknown.

There are some very good things to our common position toward freedom.  Without guns, there is fewer gun deaths.  It’s true.  In the long run, restricted access will result in fewer gun deaths.  Freedoms represented in the Second Amendment are costly. Further, the Fourth Amendment results in more crime.  If police were able to search our homes and our persons without restrictions, overall crime would reduce.  If the Eighth Amenment, prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment, were removed, then Americans could enjoy the same security from violent crime that totalitarian countries enjoy.

Of course, we value the protections of these Amendments, and that security contained within these freedoms.  It would seem, then, that as a society we value freedom very little at all, except when it provides more security  or constancy than the alternative.

When do you value freedom over security?  Sure, you’ll say you value freedom, but in your choices, when have you sacrificed for freedom.  I’m sure you’ve sacrificed for securtiy.

 Maybe we shouldn’t value freedom.  Let’s be honest.  Isn’t the certainty of being average better than the possibility of being great?  Should we even teach children to be free?

Madness!