What is security?
🔒 What is Security?
Security is the condition of being protected from danger, threat, or harm.
In politics and society, it usually refers to:
- Public safety: protection from violence, terrorism, or crime
- National stability: avoiding war, riots, or collapse of order
- Government control: laws and measures to maintain peace
Security of life, liberty and property
➡️ Why people value it: Without security, society can become chaotic and unsafe.
What is liberty?
🗽 What is Liberty?
Liberty is the condition of being free from oppression or restrictions.
It includes:
Freedom of speech
Freedom of thought
Freedom of movement
Freedom to make personal choices
➡️ Why people value it: Liberty gives people autonomy, dignity, and control over their lives.
How does liberty and security affect one another?
- We need security to have liberty. (Freedom of choice —> what to wear (jewellery)
- Because of liberty —> more security
E.g. US Gun laws most people are able to buy guns defend yourself - Increased security —> decrease liberty. Decrease in liberty —-> increase in security
Is it true that a decrease in security leads to a decrease in liberty?
Is it true that an increase in liberty leads to a decrease in security?
Not all three exists at the same time, there are some overlaps —> what do you mean?
Thought experiment and examples to support security over liberty
Security is more important than liberty because without safety and order, individual freedoms cannot be effectively enjoyed. Since humans are naturally prone to conflict and self-interest, a strong authority is necessary to prevent chaos and violence. Given that liberty cannot exist in a lawless or unstable environment, the role of political authority must first be to establish and maintain security. Therefore, security is the foundation of any functioning society, and must take precedence over liberty when the two are in conflict.
in the context of Singapore:
Internal Security Act
- government can enforce preventive (and definite) detention (without legal evidence and without trail) as long as the President is convinced that the detained person is a threat to National security or public order.
- review done every 12 months
- government: the ISA is necessary to take quick and decisive action against threats to the nation
Critics: ISA violates fundamental rights; open to abuse
Through this,
These rights are violated.
Security benefits of violation of rights include:
Security is more important than liberty because a nation cannot function without safety and order. For example, Singapore’s Internal Security Act (ISA) allows the detention of individuals without trial if they are suspected of posing a threat to national security. Although this limits personal freedoms, it is necessary to prevent terrorism, racial violence, or political instability. Since unrestricted liberty could be exploited by dangerous actors, the government must act decisively to protect society as a whole. Therefore, the ISA illustrates that when liberty conflicts with security, security must come first to ensure the survival and stability of the state.
State your reasoning for why liberty is more important than security.
Mention some thought experiment and examples to support liberty over security.
Liberty is more important than security because it forms the foundation of human dignity and provides individuals with the freedom to make meaningful choices. Since the main purpose of security is to protect liberty, it should never be used to restrict it excessively. If security is prioritised to the extent that it takes away basic rights and freedoms, it no longer serves its original purpose. Liberty is also difficult to get back, hence, it should be well protected, suggesting that it is more important. For example, in North Korea, extreme security has created a society where people live in fear, without freedom of speech or movement. Security without liberty creates submission, not peace. Therefore, in any political system, liberty must take precedence over security.
What is social contract theory?
- Individuals willingly/voluntarily surrender their rights in exchange for security.
E.g. of rights that they have to surrender:
Rights infringe
- freedom of movement
- freedom of speech
- choice
Why?
It is for their own good
liberty requires security. John Locke argued that the purpose of government was to create a kind of security for those things that would allow for liberty. Specifically, he argued that the government should provide for the security of life, liberty, and property. Once your life, your liberty, and your property are secure, then you can begin to use your liberty effectively.
What if you want the government to secure us against other things besides just those three?
- terrorism
- disease
The more secuirty we want, it comes at a price. The more things the government protect us against, the more things that we have no control over ourselves.
We may reach a point, there may be a threshold, at which we no longer have any liberty
Liberty and secuirty are trade offs
The more security we get, the less liberty we are going to have
Liberty gives us dignity. We have human, moral dignity because we have liberty. So if we are giving our liberty away in exchange for security , we are not only losing liberty, but we are also losing to that same extent some of our dignity
Difficult to get back liberty
