2013-06-10
Explanation
This comic examines the famous Benjamin Franklin quote, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." The first panel presents this oft-cited quotation, which is frequently used in debates about government surveillance, security policy, and civil liberties. However, the comic then notes that the truth is that very few people are unwilling to trade some safety for some liberty or vice versa -- people make these tradeoffs constantly.
The middle panels illustrate this with two scenarios. In one, a person says "Hi, I need some weapons-grade plutonium" and another responds "I'''ll need some ID" -- to which the first yells "Tyrant!" This satirizes the absolutist libertarian position where any restriction on dangerous materials is seen as tyranny. In another scenario, a political figure is confronted about revelations that he has placed a secret camera in everyone'''s ass, and he responds, "Oh, so I guess you want cancer to win" -- satirizing the opposite extreme where any invasion of privacy is justified in the name of safety.
The comic'''s point is that the Franklin quote, while stirring, oversimplifies a genuinely complicated tradeoff. In reality, both extreme positions -- total liberty with zero safety restrictions, and total safety with zero liberty protections -- are absurd. The humor comes from pushing both sides to their logical extremes. The votey panel adds one more jab: "Also the no buy-back rule kinda sucks," with someone responding "Buyer beware!" -- extending the metaphor of the liberty-safety tradeoff as a marketplace transaction with unfavorable terms.