On Liberty and Safety

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Benjamin Franklin

In the past two years we’ve been plagued not only with a deadly virus, but with an epidemic of wartime measures meant to keep us “safe”. Somehow. And belatedly it should strike everyone as obvious that trading liberty for safety doesn’t work, if only because two years on we’re drowning in COVID more than ever.

But since this isn’t a COVID blog, allow me to sweep aside the issue of whether any of these restrictions were any effective, and point out the similarly obvious: it was never about safety. People don’t care about safety, may it be their own or that of others, and governments even less so. And it definitely wasn’t about the science (or lack thereof) either. Those who claim otherwise are either deluded or hypocrites.

For starters: how many people out there smoke? Well, it’s arguably the leading cause of mortality in Canada, with about 230000 deaths a year; in contrast, COVID killed about 36000 Canadians since the beginning of the pandemic. The science is also categorical that smoking kills. Secondhand smoke proves to be just as deadly as contagion. So how come about 15% of Canadians smoke? Why the fuck is it legal if the government wants to save as many lives as possible? Why aren’t smokers forced into quarantine and detox? Why aren’t they barred from public spaces with their clothing still reeking of smoke, if only as a coercive measure? Why aren’t people being tested against tobacco use as a requirement to get a job? Why aren’t the masses clamouring for smokers to be denied health care?

Asking the question is denying the answer: people don’t give a shit, and neither do governments.

How many people drink alcohol? Well, alcohol consumption kills about 15000 Canadians a year, which is about the same as COVID. How about bringing back the prohibition? How about having alcohol breath analysers at work, in hospitals, and shopping malls? That’s what governments would do if it followed the science and applied similar standards of safety. Of course, save for the fact it doesn’t work.

How about bad diet? Some would argue this is the actual leading killer instead of tobacco. So, when do we start banning junk food?

Speeding kills hundreds of Canadians every year, and yet everybody does it. Who cares about the risk, or the science.

Hard drugs? Drug overdoses kill as many people as COVID, and yet governments don’t give a fuck because they don’t care about us.

I could go on and on, really.

So if it’s not about safety, what is it really about then? Let’s call it what it is: herd instinct. Something new just popped out and the herd moved in random directions, butting away the outlying black sheep. That’s all. And that’s precisely why civil liberties have been enshrined into constitutional documents in every democracy worthy of mention: to protect the herd from its own self-destructive instincts. Civil liberties make us more safe, not less. And that’s why it’s vital to reclaim them, more than ever.