Essay prompt: American essayist and social critic H.L. Mencken (1800-1956) wrote, “The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.” In a well-written essay, examine the extent to which Mencken’s observation applies to contemporary society, supporting your position with appropriate evidence.
To Be Free Or To Be Safe That Is The Question
The average man is a safe-better, not a risk taker. If you bet a man five dollars that you will flip a coin heads, he may or may not take your bet based on what type of person he is. However, if you make the stakes high enough he will almost always take the safe bet. So the average man will choose to be safe, even if it means giving up some of his freedom. All citizens give up some freedoms in order for them to be safer. No citizen is truly completely free, no one can go around killing other people without being punished. But, in giving up that technical freedom to kill other people, it gives back some protection against being killed. Citizens are less likely to be killed being a part of society rather than living in a lawless, free-for-all place where there are no laws. So everyone gives up some freedom for safety, but is safety in the end more important to the average person rather than freedom?
My dad is an example of someone who gave up some of his freedom, for safety. He wanted to be a playwright, and actually moved to Los Angeles to realize his dream. But, when he started a family he gave up on being a playwright and went to law school to find a job with more financial stability and safety for his family. Millions of middle class citizens choose monotonous, stable jobs, like my dad did, over quitting and being free to pursue their dream job. They choose their mundane, possibly mind-numbing job because that job provides a safety net, for them and their families. Since most adults also have to or will have to provide safety for a family as well as themselves, they are more willing to give up that freedom for a safety net.
One example of how all Americans in general give up freedom for safety is the dramatic increase in airport security. Now when traveling, citizens have basically given up their rights to privacy. Airport security looks inside every bag using computers, holds the right to search any bag they deem “suspicious”, they can take anyone’s belonging too if they deem it “suspicious” and they can strip search people all under the law. All of this was because of the terrorist attack of nine-eleven and for people to feel safer inside airplanes again. Most Americans agree with the government that airports needed to be more secure after the attack, and they were willing to give up that right to be safe.
Because of this strong desire to be feel secure, people follow, or elect leaders that make them feel the safest. One example is in Germany after WWI. Hitler rose to power because he gave the people a sense of order and structure: a safe haven from the chaos that germany was in at the time. This tendency to follow leaders that will make us safer still applies today. Obama has gained a lot of support for his goal for more gun control in the United States. Gun control, restricting Americans’ rights to bear arms, is gaining more and more support through the country. While some people are against it because they argue that it is their right to bear arms, many people all over the nation are for it. They are supportive of this legislation because they believe that it will make America safer by taking away all the guns civilians can have. They believe that it will reduce gun violence, and they are willing to give up their right to bear arms for that goal.
All in all, most people will give up their freedoms for safety if they feel in danger of something. All of that airport security legislation would not have passed if it had not been for the terrorist attack. Gun control would also most likely have a lot less support if there was not so many mass shootings and other gun-related crimes. So while people will give up their freedoms to protect themselves against their fears, people would not just give up all of their freedom for protection that they feel they do not need. Therefore, while it is more important to people to feel safe, people will only give up their freedom for safety if they feel they are at-risk for something.
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