ronpaulvoter
Well-known member
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- Aug 9, 2007
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- Libertarian
Which do you value most -- freedom or safety?
Which do you value most -- freedom or safety?
Stated much better than I am capable..I voted freedom... but to be honest, the question is really much more complex than that.
A certain level of order and safety is necessary for freedom to be worth much. Somalia, for instance... you can be as free as you have the armed might to enforce, but no more. Someone with more armed might can come along and kill you or take what you have. That's anarchy.
Too much order strangles freedom, too little order makes freedom of little value. Excessive concern over safety can infringe of freedom, but too much laissez-faire and caveat-emptor can make freedom too perilous to exercise.
There's a certain balance that maximizes the real value of freedom, and in recent years I've become convinced of the necessity for gov't to prevent overwhelmingly powerful private concerns (ie corporations, for one) from trampling the rights of the individual.
However much we may wish it were not so, no man is an island. We exist as part of a society, and there is an inevitable give and take.
I would to have the freedom to cross the street whenever I like, but that would put my safety in serious jeapordy.
I would love to drive my car without a seatbelt, but that would put my safety in serious jeapordy.
You see, there needs to be a balance between safety & freedom, otherwise bad things happen.
Bad things happen anyway. You don't avoid bad things with prevention tactics, you just destroy liberty.
no, making it illegal to cross the street against the light, saves lives. many...many lives.
is my freedom destroyed..because I can't cross the street while cars are driving by?
:lamo
Do you really know it saves lives or are you just assuming it does?
you're actually asking me if don't walk signals actually save lives??????????????????
what do you think would happen if we allowed folks to cross the street whenever they like?
:doh
Bad things happen anyway. You don't avoid bad things with prevention tactics, you just destroy liberty.
So putting that double yellow line down the middle of the street does not prevent bad things from happening on that road every day that thousands of cars drive on it?
Do you want the 'liberty' (what ever the hell that means,) to drive anywhere you want to on that road? Do you defend the 'liberty' of others to use the road as they please? Or do you believe in laws designed with prevention in mind?
People would be aware of the danger? /Shrug
and some fools would try to beat the cars, since its no longer illegal.
Don't Walk lights save lives.
....and you think this is an unjust attack upon liberty & freedom.
Some people are retarded and try to beat the cars now, run stop lights, speed, pass on double yellow lines when there is not a opening, drink and drive, etc. The argument of many you save with this measures is almost entirely academic. You save some yes, but the cost of doing it usually causing no harm so you are being punished for it far outweighs it. If harm does occur usually you are dealing with other charges anyway.