Security Blankcheck

David Lee Beowülf

Being the “gun nut,” I’ve often heard (and plenty of times have used) the phrase, “the people will gladly trade liberty for security.” Pertaining to guns, the issue is trading in the lawful right of an American citizen to keep and bear arms in exchange for some sort of government power that will keep him or her safe.

Frankly, it’s bullshit.

Oh, not the part about trading it in; hell, Americans are willing to trade much less (and then some) for that nice, secure feeling. Truth be told, most Americans – if you read the newspapers – are terrified that there are private citizen with guns, let alone kitchen knives, forks, and word processing equipment. Privately owned automobiles don’t seem to enter the equation.

What’s bullshit is the “security” part.

How secure will you be if there’s not an armed populace around?

About as secure as you are right now.

After all, even though the right to keep and bear arms is necessary to the security of a free state and you may feel secure in your person and papers – you can be sure that “security” is the stuff of religion – and any correctly-thinking twenty-first century American knows that’s just a myth, and by gosh, why haven’t those doggone religious fanatics been put into insane asylums where they belong, anyway? Them damn bigoted zealots are the problem with the country today, anyway! And if there’s an enemy to an individual’s security, it’s certainly someone’s “religion” being forced on someone else…

But I digress.

“Liberty,” as I believe it’s to be defined concerning the American citizen, is the right to do anything one wants; it’s a free country. Of course, there are laws to be followed and by gosh those laws pretty much assure that “liberty” covers everyone.

And with liberty comes responsibility.

That is, liberty is a scary thing.

Liberty means you gotta watch out for yourself, and that’s a tough thing to do with all the temptation in the world.

Wait a minute, maybe we are secure…

Security, on the other hand, isn’t scary at all. And there’s plenty of it to be had. We have our police who watch out for our bodies and property. We have our public schools to educate and feed our children. We have our government to watch every move we make – and we know that it’ll be there when we fall down to pick us right back up and put a Band-Aid on that skinned knee.

But security isn’t going to be there forever. As an example, right now there are evil forces at work who are trying to take away some of this security: they’re trying to make it harder for people who’ve maxed out all their credit cards to not pay. Think of it: today you can tell your creditors, those lousy banks who gave you thousands of dollars to play with, to take a hike if they want “their” money back. Tomorrow, you’ll have to give back what’s left of what you bought and pay your bills!

Likewise, there are evil forces at work that want all sorts of things. There are even those that want people to work for welfare payments (as if slavery isn’t enough).

Now that I think of it, in today’s America, security reigns supreme: we have a government that literally will wipe our ass for us for free.

But someone has to pay for it, no?

Yeah, but they’re insecure. And I reckon that since “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose,” those who cherish “liberty” would rather starve without even tasting the fruits of the country that are there for the picking. If there’s no one left to pay for things, then there will be no reason to pay, no need for money, no need for want. If no one’s responsible than there’s nothing to be responsible for and everyone will be happy.

Clearly: freedom is slavery. ◼