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Difference Between Safety And Freedom Essay

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Every moment that happens in our lives, every decision that we make, every path that we follow eventually boils down to us making the choice between having safety and having freedom. These two concepts are completely different yet in order for life to work properly you can’t have one without some of the other. They can never be totally equal and the greater one isn’t necessarily our choice all the time but if you were to only have one we would be living a completely different story. H.L. Mencken believed that human kind “doesn’t want to be free… [they] simply want to be safe.” However, in contemporary society (any society for that matter) that’s not true. Whether you want safety or freedom depends upon the situation/moment you are living in at any given point. When we are first born all we want is to be held and cuddled. Having that closeness gives us the feeling of security. When we are laid down we begin to cry because we don’t feel safe anymore. Then we learn to crawl, then walk, then eventually run. We no longer want to be held and kept down we want our freedom. Our freedom to explore and learn and grow. Then we fall and scrap our knee for the first time, suddenly…in that moment all we …show more content…

It happens 24/7 even though we don’t really realize it, because like previously mentioned we don’t always get the choice. Growing up, we give up our freedoms in order to have the safety that comes with living under our parents’ house. Every day we get into a car, or a bus, or on a bike we risk our safety in order to have the freedom of traveling places when we please. So saying that the “average man” would rather have safety over freedom, or vice versa is like saying that everyone always tells the truth. What one we want is dependent upon the situation we are in at any given time. Some are natural choices, some are thoroughly deliberate. Either way everyone wants both freedom and

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