"If we can save one life ..." We hear that a lot from people trying to take away our freedom, that ...
"If we can save one life ..."
We hear that a lot from people trying to take away our freedom, that any measure is justified "if we can save one life." But they don't really mean it, obviously: we can save lives by restricting speech, movement, association, private property, and so on, in a multitude of ways. But we don't, because it is not worth it to save one life, to lose essential liberty.
What they mean when they say this is that they do not believe that the freedom they are trying to take away is a freedom that people should have.
Of course, the other dishonest part of this rhetoric is that the measures they are talking about usually have nothing to do with the problem they are trying to solve, as is the case with "universal background checks" and the shooting of the journalist and cameraman.
We hear that a lot from people trying to take away our freedom, that any measure is justified "if we can save one life." But they don't really mean it, obviously: we can save lives by restricting speech, movement, association, private property, and so on, in a multitude of ways. But we don't, because it is not worth it to save one life, to lose essential liberty.
What they mean when they say this is that they do not believe that the freedom they are trying to take away is a freedom that people should have.
Of course, the other dishonest part of this rhetoric is that the measures they are talking about usually have nothing to do with the problem they are trying to solve, as is the case with "universal background checks" and the shooting of the journalist and cameraman.
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
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