UK Citizens Not Too Concerned About Civil Liberties
cn | 24 January, 2007 17:46An article at Homeland Stupidity looks at the overwhelming willingness of Britons to give up their civil liberties for greater security:
A recent study of social attitudes in Britain has discovered that support for civil liberties is on the wane, with the majority of the population seeing infringements on their rights as a reasonable price for apparent security.
The British Social Attitudes Survey, released every year since 1983, reports that the vast majority of British citizens support compulsory, biometric identity cards, are in favour of detentions of terrorist subjects without charge, and support the tagging and wire-tapping of terrorist suspects without charge.
Now, I have all kinds of problems with this attitude, but I guess what I find most disconcerting is that the people surveyed really believe, or at least want to believe to such an extent that they do believe, that they are somehow safer if the government is constantly and endlessly watching them. Will they consider themselves safer when they can no longer criticize the government in any way so long as there are no terrorist attacks. They may be safer from terrorists in that moment, but is that a world in which you want to live?
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Philosophy, Politics, Speeding Towards a Police State .
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