I Want To Be Free By H. L. Mencken

In the 1600s, settlers from England came to America in order to escape religious persecution and worship freely. Our country was founded upon the principles of individual liberty and limited government. However, most citizens realize that in order for any society to peacefully coexist and remain safe, there must be laws and rules in place. H. L. Mencken wrote, “The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.” I believe Mencken’s statement is mostly true because in contemporary society, most citizens willingly concede certain freedoms and liberties, in exchange for the assurance of personal safety.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs lists safety as a basic and fundamental need of all humans. In modern societies, we use a system

Most Americans cling strongly to the idea of freedom and consider it the cornerstone of our democracy. At the same time, most people in free societies have no real concept of what it is like to experience true limitations to their freedom. In countries all over the world, dictators control what their people watch, read, think, and say. There is no freedom of the press in many places such as China, North Korea, Cuba and Iran. Elections are not democratically or fairly held in Russia, Hong Kong, and Syria. In America, we have a multitude of freedoms, such as: freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of press, and freedom of religion. Musicians, actors and artists regularly lead the fight for their own freedom of expression in their work, and the right of all people to express themselves without restraints. Americans expect these freedoms to carry over to their right to privacy and to limit intrusions from the government. In 2013, Edward Snowden, a former Central Intelligence Agency employee, leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) which revealed surveillance programs that were collecting information on billions of people without cause, and being carried out by the NSA and other governments around the world. People were outraged that their private phone calls and emails were being monitored. However, in late 2015, when a terrorist attack took place in San Bernardino, California, the FBI asked Apple to unlock the attacker’s phone. When Apple refused, citing a dangerous precedent to user privacy, they were criticized for not cooperating with the government and putting national security at risk. This once again points to Mencken’s idea that the average citizen in modern times is willing to give up personal liberties in the name of