To obtain protection and public services from our government, we must give up a measure of our freedom. It is true that if we as citizens surrender a small amount of freedom we can derive a great deal of safety and tranquility. This is not a linear trend however. Consider a glass of water. If you are very thirsty, a small amount of water will satisfy you greatly. Each consecutive glass of water satisfies you far less then the one before. Your individual liberties are like those glasses of water. You give up the freedom to spend a fraction of your income in order to obtain social services. You give up some of your freedoms in compliance with the law in order to obtain a measure of tranquility. It is also true that we can achieve a state in which all services are provided for and all safety is guaranteed. This scenario would be something between a commune and a prison. After all, Greek soldiers waited tranquilly when waiting to be devoured by the cyclops. The trick then is to surrender the correct amount of freedom. That is to feel appropriately safe. Of course we as humans are programmed to be skeptical about our safety (read Taleb's The Black Swan). It becomes apparent that it is very easy to say that we have too little safety, but very difficult to know when one is too safe.
I cannot say definitely where the line between appropriately safe and overly safe occurs, each man must decide this for himself. I can very comfortably point out, however, that we Americans are far far too safe. This begins as children, when the parent refuses to allow the child to experiment and derive for himself what is and is not a good idea. Today's youth are the first in history who pass can through four metal detectors at three security checkpoints and still believe that they are having fun.
When i was young, i wanted to fly. My solution to my groundedness was to construct a pair of wings out of cardboard. I was to strap these wings to my arms and jump off of the deck. My dad saw what i was doing and told me that it wouldn't work, and i would probably fall and hurt myself. He did this in a very nice way, instead of stating that it wouldn't work, he said that it wouldn't work for two reasons: the first was that the shape of my wings was wrong and second that i would probably not be able to get the air going over the wings fast enough. My response: i asked for help re-shaping the wings. Once he helped me make the traditional wing shape, explained how it worked, and helped me strap the wings to my arms, he reminded me about the wind speed problem. I looked at him and asked for a boost. he lifted me onto the rail of the deck and wished me a good flight. The result was two things, the first was that i learned by experience rather than a simple "that won't work", the second was that i hurt myself. (Years later i also learned that Dad is usually right) The point is that i was given the oppurtunity to learn through my mistakes.
If we as people are not willing to scuff our knees at the cost of living life, that we do not deserve the life we have. The government should act as the parent, and ours is smothering us. The powers that be should of course prevent us from damaging ourselves beyond repair (my original plan was to jump off of the very tall community dumpster as it was the tallest object around with a ladder) but ultimately we need free will and the opportunity to make mistakes. If we never make mistakes, then we are never given the opportunity to take responsibility for our actions or to help others.
Our free will is what makes us human, and it is not in the government's best interest. I am not advocating a coup, or a changing of the guard, I'm just calling for a little dissent, a little adventurousness, a little dirt-in-the-wound freedom. I'm calling on us to be people as well as citizens. So take a chance, make a mistake, build it up, tear it down and so long as you're still breathing at the end, then you're alive in all senses of the word.
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