Security over Privacy: The Price that Must Be Paid for the Greater Good

Security and liberty cannot be separated; furthermore it is a fallacy to think you can give up one for the other.

However, assuming that the government is a benign entity involved in our best interest, you might say that giving up some of our liberty to the government would be a reasonable trade for the security of ourselves and our families against both external and internal threats. This is not including the government itself.

With this assumption, and providing that the government would act appropriately on the information gained, with the relinquishment of our privacy the government then has the ability to prevent possible shootings, terrorist attacks, organized crime, gang activity, financial fraud, identity theft, and any number of crimes both large and small.

In this mindset, privacy is a very miniscule price to pay for the “greater good”. The average American citizen should have no fear of anything happening to them with this relinquishing of privacy. They are protected from both the government and any perceived threat, because an average American has no tendency to criminality and because the government may now be able to locate any threats before they become a problem, respectively. If a person has nothing to hide, they should not have any problem with letting the government take possession of mass amounts, if not all, of their personal information.

In the wake of the many attacks within our country in the past month alone, the idea of freely letting the government seize information in the interest of preventing these attacks and save countless lives becomes significantly more appealing. It means that now, we as citizens are directly involved in the security of our own nation. We then become part of that “greater good”. We can make a big difference in the lives of our fellow Americans just from the very simple act of surrendering something as seemingly small and insignificant as privacy.

The data obtained could be used to help promote the general welfare, individual and public health, individual and public financial stability by monitoring spending habits, and prevent self-destructive habits.

Law and law enforcement would become more effective and correctional measures could be implemented swiftly, therefore effectively preventing the wrong people from being convicted and placed in correctional facilities and reducing the massive strain on the economy and government resources.

The benefits of national surveillance go beyond merely preventing crime and acts of terror, we would be able to create a society in which everyone could live up to their greatest potential, deviant behavior and self and societal destructive lifestyles could receive intervention and be eliminated.