Big Brother Is Watching You

National security is always a very important issue in a country, as you may lose part of or even the whole country if you do not pay attention on it. Especially after the 911 accident, all countries on the earth learnt the lesson and had put more attention on their national security to prevent another disastrous terrorist attack. In order to maintain the security, freedom is to be sacrificed. Governments have to keep eyes on everyone and everywhere. For example, they have to install CCTVs at many important places; they have to check our bodies and our belongings when we go to some area. We lose part of our freedom but we get the safety as an exchange. Is it good or bad about these actions?

On one side, the new security measures are protecting our lives, just like what the army and police are doing normally. They can keep us safe by keeping us away from terrorists. We can live safely and do not have to worry about any danger will come to us.

On the other side, those new security measures take away our freedom. Freedom is one of the rights we should have as a human. No one should have the power to take it away from us. There are many examples like whenever some laws which against our freedom are introduced by governments or councilors, many associations and parties will stand up and speak out loud to fight against the corresponding laws.

In my opinion, it is more good than bad in this issue. For those who disagree, I want to ask you what the governments can do to protect us while keeping the freedom for us. At least those famous politicians and government officials cannot answer it. So I can say freedom and safety cannot exist together in this case, and it becomes a dichotomy. Here comes a question: what should we choose between freedom and safety? I think the answer would be obvious. Assuming that we are not radical liberalists, we should surely choose safety. Our lives should be the first thing that we have to consider, because we can do nothing and have nothing without our lives. Moreover, the peace brought by the security measures is also very important to us. You can imagine if you have everything but without peace in your heart, it would be rather worse than the case if you have nothing but with peace. So I think peace is more important than anything including freedom. Thus, I agree to sacrifice our freedom to exchange for our valuable lives and irreplaceable peace.