The prospect of a government that treats all its citizens as criminal suspects is more terrifying than any terrorist. And even more frightening is a citizenry that can accept the surrender of its freedoms as the price of "freedom".
Interpretation
This quote warns against a government that infringes on personal freedoms under the guise of security.
Joseph Sobran highlights the danger of a government that perceives all citizens as potential criminals, suggesting that this mindset creates a more profound threat to liberty than any external terrorism. He argues that society's willingness to trade its freedoms for a false sense of security is a terrifying acceptance of tyranny.
In practice
During a debate on privacy laws, this quote could emphasize the importance of protecting personal freedoms.
There has never been a humane communist regime. Marxism is inherently totalitarian. It recognizes no moral limits on the state. It’s the most convenient ideology for aspiring tyrants; it also retains its appeal for intellectuals, who have proved equally skillful at rationalizing abuses of power and at exculpating themselves.
Man is the only creature disposed to kill huge numbers of members of his own species, and his instrument is usually the state.
[T]here is very little difference between one person and another, but what little difference ther eis, is very important.
Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between the stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight. The capacity to create ourselves, based upon this freedom, is inseparable from consciousness or self-awareness. (p. 100)
It is inconceivable to me that a million or three million or half a million human beings will think and feel precisely the same way on any single subject.
He is the way, the truth, and the light, and no one can come back into the presence of our Father in heaven except through him. Christ is God the Son and possesses every virtue in its perfection. Therefore, the only measure of true greatness is how close a man can become like Jesus. That man is greatest who is most like Christ, and those who love him most will be most like him.
We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are - politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings.
The constitution of Soviet Russia must insure equal rights for all citizens regardless of sex, creed, race, or nationality.
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