Privacy vs. Security: A False Dichotomy

There is really only one argument in support of mass surveillance by the State: Increased security can be bought with reduced privacy.

That claim begs the question: "How much liberty buys how much security?"

It is almost impossible to imagine how two completely different abstractions - security and liberty - could be compared, when idiomatically, we can't even compare apples and oranges. We should be very uneasy that an entire political age has been built on just that comparison. But, since our leaders insist on making it, and it is the only one they ever make for extinguishing our civil rights, and in particular our privacy, let's run with it ...