The Political Inquirer

Security and safety or privacy breach?

Britain makes a camera that “sees” through garments and clothing.

The idea is great. There is no doubt that the streets are unsafe and many urban regions and criminals thrive while innocents strive. There are many dangerous people in the world, some of them I know. Britain, I presume, will accept this without a fuss. If it should come soon to America, either we will say that the cameras are important and useful because of our own criminals or for the surveillance of people to spot out terrorists.

I would wish to differ on both accounts: I would accept neither for my own principles of freedom, liberty and natural law.

For those who think our crime rates are too high and that to subdue it we need more surveillance, I ask you this: have we lowered crime rates before? have crime rates ever been zero? and will evil people cease to do harm because of a simple camera?

For those who believe that to curtail the essence of terrorism in America and Great Britain, we need sharper security methods, I ask you this: how many terrorist attacks have we had in the past three years? did you ever stop to that that maybe this isn’t for terrorists? do you think a simple camera is going to stop the terrorists main goal?

Oh, but the camera is not so simple. The acceptance of this little bit of technology is a sacrifice of our own safety for a pretend safety from other things. The only true safety from evil is liberty and a good gun. We have two enemies to fight now: those who crave physical power and those who crave subliminal power. The latter should be the greatest feared, but it is the less noticed and the easiest to ignore. A government who doesn’t mind peaking under the clothing of a good citizen is a government to be clapped in irons.