🚀 go-pugleaf

>>>>> george@tessi.com (George Mitchell) (GM) writes:

GM> denning@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu (Dorothy Denning) writes a spirited
GM> defense of the trial balloon.

GM> I'll leave the response to that well-known radical, Benjamin Franklin:

GM> "Those who give up a little liberty to obtain safety deserve neither
GM> liberty nor safety."

Which is of course nonsense and therefore dangerous.

There are plenty of example where everyone gives up a little liberty in
order to obtain more safety. E.g in traffic:

Traffic lights, speed limits, driving to the right (or left in appropriate
countries).

I would say that you can only get safety by sacrificing some liberty.

The real question is "How much liberty do we want to sacrifice for how much
safety?" This is often a political question, at least when it regards
things that transcend the private life.

There are no simple answers to the above question, except maybe that
sacrificing absolutely no liberty, or sacrificing all liberty are not the
solution.
-- 
Piet* van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University,
Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Telephone: +31 30 531806   Uucp:   uunet!mcsun!ruuinf!piet
Telefax:   +31 30 513791   Internet:  piet@cs.ruu.nl   (*`Pete')