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Liberty vs security
Liberty vs security
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When Mencken said that the average man rather be safe than free, he implied that being free doesn’t let you live a safe and secure life. There is danger to being a free man. You can not live life without rules. This all applies to our present. People dream about living life being rich, having it easy, no problems just fun, or maybe even peaceful. This is what a lot of people dream about but it is something we can not have. To live this life you would need to be a free man. Being free in today’s society would probably mean to not have to work so they could be lazy and live a relaxing life. Sure this sounds nice but no one lives this life because being a free is not what you should want. Being safe is what you should want. Safe as in having a house and a job to pay for necessities. You want to be able to pay for hospital bills for when you get hurt. You want to be able to live in a safe environment. Another one is to pay for food which is pretty important because you do not want to either mooch off people or steal from garbage. When you think of a free man you should think of a survivor on an island. That is what should be the first …show more content…
You rather be in a safe environment and survive with the others in a peaceful world. Some think that being free is the peaceful way to live but in reality just blending like the others and doing what others do is the peaceful way which is also the safe way of living. In today’s world, you see everybody working to get where they either need to be or to where they want to be. People make their own decisions. It is up to themselves to make their own choices and when they do hopefully it is the safe choice. One choice after another is what creates the path of life, it is all about the choices that leads them to the secure path of life. Yes everyone complains about working because it is tiring but life is not easy, it is meant to be
Mencken’s observations are very relevant and it applies to contemporary society. It is necessary to identify what it means by being “free”. Does being free mean that one has choice of religion and type of government? The type of freedom mentioned previously do not apply to mankind if mankind is not safe and is risk for danger. It is human nature to choose safety over freedom as shown in various examples.
“But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.”
man, its almost like a disease. He says that man wants happiness in life not freedom. By
According to the Collins Dictionary, “freedom” is defined as “the state of being allowed to do what you want to do”(“freedom”). The definition of freedom is simple, but make yourself free is not easy. Concerning about some common cases which will take away your freedom, such as a time-cost high education attainment. In this essay, I shall persuade that everyone should try his or her best to insist on pursuing freedom. For the individual, it appears that only if you have your personal freedom, can you have a dream; for a country, it seems that only if the country is free, can the country develop; for mankind, it looks like that only if people has their own pursuit of freedom, can their thoughts evolve.
With freedom comes great responsibility. This saying has been heard by generations of kids and has been said by generations of parents. Unfortunately people today don?t seem to be responsible in certain things they do. You see things in media today that make you wonder when you draw the line on things you say and do. William Golding the author of Lord of The Flies conveys this thought in the story of the boys stuck on the island where they have complete freedom to do whatever they want to do. They no longer had adults to tell them what and how to do things. The story just proves that when people are irresponsible and freedom gets abused that very bad things can happen.
H. L. Mencken wrote “the average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.” I agree with this quote because of the deeper meaning it has behind it. In today’s society people do not seem to have ambitions or dreams that they want to pursue. A lot of people settle with a job that pays just enough to make a living or they do not go beyond their limits to get a higher education to be able to make more money. These people are overcome by fear. They are afraid to continue moving forward and taking risks.
Since the beginning of humanity, a large part of humankind’s focus was directed towards survival. A person’s primary function is to survive and reproduce. As society progresses the the more contemporary of what is expected today, success has become jointed with how an individual works with others and less on how much they achieve by themselves. Mencken wrote that “the average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.” In comparison to modern beliefs this notion is quite true. The average American may say they love freedom, but just what kind of freedom are they talking about? For the majority, what they mean is that they want a safe environment where people can do what they want within reason and not bring about harm or discomfort
Born into completely different situations at completely different times in history, you may think that Socrates and Virginia Woolf may have a very different idea about the concept of freedom. Socrates was never able to experience freedom of religion, which every American knows as a basic right given by the constitution. Woolf, on the other hand, was given just a glance at women’s equality and only because of her financial stability. While both Socrates and Woolf knew that they weren’t given a fair chance at freedom, they both wanted to let others understand what they were going through so that when change happened, which they both knew it would, people could look back on the past and conceptualize how far the world has come. So really the question becomes, does it take death, or money, to be free?
With this in mind, it is necessary to examine the meaning in politics of the word ‘free’, as it is associated with many different meanings and ideas, and indeed most ideologies and forms of governments or states would relish associating themselves with the word in one form or another. One of the most concise explanations of liberty or freedom is by Isaiah Berlin in his Two Concepts of Liberty (1958). He distinguishes between ‘negative’ liberty and ‘positive’ liberty. Negative liberty consists of an absence of external restrictions allowing the citizen to live free from interference. Positive liberty is a newer concept and embodies the ability to be one’s own master and become autonomous, often requiring government intervention to reach self-fulfilment.
Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.” He and liberty have finally escaped the community and achieved freedom. This ties in to the original quote, “To be free a man must be free of his brothers.” They have finally escaped their brothers and sisters, they are free from them, they are free to do as they please and be
are never then truly free no matter how much freedom we can have within the
Man has always strived for the ultimate form of stability. The world that forged our ancestors was a dangerous place, rife with disease, sparse with food, stricken with environmental harshness, brimming with beasts. They wanted to live in a world where the power of fear was lessened, where they could live longer, where they were safe. The societies we live in today were created to ensure that base standard of safety that Mencken observes all men desire. Mencken, however, misunderstands full extent of safety the average man desires, and in doing so he rules freedom as a separate entity, when truly the nature of freedom and safety are more intertwined than one may think.
If they have too much security, it usually means less of an opportunity to experience new things firsthand. The more security you have, the less knowledge of the outside world you’ll have. Without knowledge of the outside world, you will probably have a really hard time finding a job, or have trouble adapting to the rush of new things. Nevertheless, some people think freedom is a negative thing and would prefer security over freedom, because it can harm you if you dwell too deep into it. But like Rick Warren said, “We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it,” meaning that we learn from our mistakes, and our mistakes help us grow. Maybe we wil take advantage of our freedom one day and destroy ourselves, but “the sweet taste of it is so damn irresistible.” Children across the world need to have freedom, for it will assist them in the situations that they will face when they grow older; when they start to live in the outside world. A person’s adolescent years are their most important and valuable. During this time, they learn how to adapt, learn what’s wrong and what’s right, figure out how to do things, etc. However, if you trade freedom for security, you’re throwing away the meaning of “living life to its fullest.” The less security you have, the more freedom you
The more Freedom you hold, the less likely you are to want to be associated with with Society. Individuals are commonly restricting themselves from what they need and desire due to the pressures society has forced on them. People are moderating what they eat, increasing their expenditures, and doing things that do not please them or the people around them. The fact of the matter is that many individuals have lost sight of who they are and what they want for themselves and have focused more on what is trending or what famous people are doing. However, for those who find freedom more important than fitting in don’t stress out about what they need to spend money or time on. These people are content with themselves, and they can accomplish what they want and do what they desire. Freedom is one of the many benefits from liberating yourself from society’s tight
This well-known statement truly incorporates all facets of what it means to be free in America. The citizens of this country have the right to live. They have the right to be free of restriction and control, to do what they please. And they have the right to be happy in whatever way that might be. These rights are so basic, yet so vital.... ...