Safety, Security and Freedom

A friend of mine sent me a link to this article now while I agree with some of the things that are valid I see this article as a microcosm of the whole giving up freedom for security debate. If you know what you are doing and the consequences of what you do then you should have and deserve more freedom of choice. Otherwise yes you do need to be protected but for that protection you have have to be prepared to give up some freedom.
This debate has been around for a while, Benjamin Franklin wrote, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." The issue around safety and security is how most governments and authorities control the masses, they don't particularly want the people to have freedom to think abou thinks because the people might realise that they don't actually need government so they create threats to security and safety. Yes, there are genuine threats and perhaps governments to keep quiet about a lot of major threats but that is because they cannot to go to the other extreme. An animal will run but a cornered animal that is wounded will attack, if a government had to admit to the people that it was barely keeping them safe it wouldn't be long before the people lose trust in the government.
The strange thing is that sometimes the people who are demanding greater freedom deserve it the least, they would prefer to break away from government control to form their own isolated community where they can hide away from the world. These people just don't get along with other people they view as different and want freedom from government so that they can build their own safety and security perimeter, usually with guns and other assorted weapons.