What is libertarianism? According to David Boaz, "Libertarianism is the view that each person has the right to live his life in any way he chooses so long as he respects the equal rights of others" and that, "Libertarians defend each person's right to life, liberty, and property--rights that people have naturally, before governments are created.” (Boaz 1998) Libertarians make up about one-third of the political parties in the United States, and Arizona is one of the states that is Libertarian. People who believe in the Liberal view of politics and government believe that the government has no right intruding in their personal space and they try to do whatever they can to make sure their privacy is just that. Some Liberals believe that there shouldn’t be a ruling government and that they should be able to do as they please. Others believe that the government should control everything and without the government we wouldn’t have anything. I believe that I lie right in the middle of that spectrum. I believe that we need a government to help maintain rules and regulations, but I don’t think I need a government like in 1984 where they are watching every single thing I do.
Sameer Parekh is one of those Liberals who isn’t very fond of the government. He helps to traffic cryptography into the United States and to different places all over the world. He believes that by using cryptography it will keep the government from prying into our privacy. Big businesses and banks use cryptography to keep con-men from hurting their business or stealing money. Sameer also believes that cryptography will be really useful to people who can’t afford to leave a paper trail behind, like those who want to cheat taxes. Money transfers will be untraceable, papers encrypted will be impossible to decode, money on the internet will be safe from the government, and people will be able to do what they want as long as what they are doing is encrypted (McHugh 436).
The only problem is, not only good people will get their hands on this cryptography. Sameer boasts that money transfers will be untraceable. What if a little girl is kidnapped and money is transferred to the kidnappers from the parents? With this cryptography, there would be no way police would be able to trace the kidnappers and they could get away with the money and the child. Terrorists would be able to use this new technology to plan new attacks and the government wouldn’t be able to pick up any red flags because they wouldn’t be able to decrypt the messages sent back and forth. Sure, this new technology can be used for privacy, but put into the wrong hands it can become very dangerous very quickly.
I believe that we need to government to help keep and maintain laws. Sure nobody likes to pay taxes, but without those taxes many of the luxuries we have would be gone. Imagine a world without any sort of government. There would be no rules, no laws, and all chaos. Murderers would get off scot free, nobody would be working, theft would be an everyday thing for everybody. This is a not a world I want to live in. On the other hand, imagine a world where everything you do is monitored, videotaped, and you are being controlled by a high government. If you stole something the government would know right away. If you were planning on trying to overthrow them, they would be able to find out through your emails or phone calls. I don’t want to live in a world like this either. In order for our country to run smoothly we need a balance. We need a government who will enforce rules but not invade our privacy.
Works Cited
Boaz, David (1998). Libertarianism - A Primer. Free Press. p. 2. ISBN 0-684-84768-X. http://www.libertarianism.org/ex-1.html. Retrieved 26 Sep 2010.
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