Freedom is being able to think, say, and do what you want — to live your life as you please. Safety is being protected from harm — to live your life without fear of danger.

Though people may uphold freedom as an ultimate virtue, it’s limited in society. You can’t have absolute freedom because it takes away from the safety and the freedom of others. If anyone could do whatever they wanted, and they chose to hurt and kill, that restricts someone else’s freedom to live as they please.

But you also can’t have absolute safety. That would require monitoring and limiting the actions of everyone, submitting to a protective but also authoritative body. Restricting actions limits freedom, but it also limits safety because you become vulnerable to whoever you trust for protection.

Absolute freedom and absolute safety don’t exist in the real world. They rely on each other. Freedom needs safety to be free, and safety needs freedom to be safe.

Within the structure of a society, an ideal government holds the authority and responsibility of balancing the two — giving as much freedom and as much safety as possible to as many people as possible.

7 0

3 years ago