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Sell Your Rights
Half of the NYU students polled said they'd give up their right to vote permanently for $1 million. This does not surprise me at all. This just confirms what I've learned after listening to the proposed solutions for any crime wave, terrorist attack or drunken college kid. People don't value their rights. If they feel threatened they will jettison them for security before you can say "we the people". This case - selling them off for cash - is a little different but the general premise still holds. Too many people are just scared little puppies, willing to cede precious rights for short term gain, be it safety or economic, personal or political. This is why every time a there's a proposal to ban anything from trans fats to guns we need to consider what we're losing as the most important factor. Once we lose it, once we allow it to be taken away, we rarely get it back.

Rights story via Jason Kottke.



Update: (11/20/2007 1:48:03 PM) Some people have had the unfortunate luck of teaching these people. Sorry.
 
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