I was reading a discussion related to a story about how soon every email in the UK will be monitored by the government, and someone brought up this quote:
“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”
And I had to stop and think about that for a moment, because… well, it’s worth stopping and thinking about things like this. To think that every plea for taking away our freedoms because it’s “necessary” (whether to “combat terrorism” or “fight the war on drugs” or whatever) is the argument of a tyrant.
I suppose the lesson to take from this is to give us all pause whenever our leaders say that some new measure is “necessary.” Because, chances are that measure is taking away some of our freedom (whether we realize it or not), and we should always pause and reflect on such decisions before we allow them to proceed.
Of course, most of us are too busy watching TV, so I guess it’ll just be me sitting here and worrying about the state of things.
