Philosophical question, hopefully primitive enough to avoid political jargon: if you have to choose between freedom and peace, which do you choose? Now, personally, I would say what I think most people would say, which is that both are necessary but freedom should take the higher priority. But is that really what we do? It seems as though many people are just fine with curtailing the freedoms of others in order to get their own peace. As usual, the personal is the political. Realistically, you can't have one without the other. Oppression is never really peaceful, and war is never really liberating, though both are sold that way. You can't have freedom without peace, you can't have peace without freedom. But politics are always about compromise (or else they're about violence). We generally accept that some limitations on freedom provide greater overall freedom in effect, and likewise we accept that some amount of violence appears to be necessary in order to keep things peaceful. Where to draw the line is where most of the argument is, with most people wanting not so much to draw a line that cuts evenly through society as to draw a circle that encloses whatever is different about other people while leaving themselves free to do whatever they want. Thoughts? How do you define the balance, or articulate the best compromise?
Freedom for me. But, there have been times when I settled for peace but then I got a divorce. Freedom won out. France settled for peace and allied themselves to the Nazis, happily rounded up Jews to send to death camps, and fought, badly, against the allies. They opted for peace over freedom. But, most people, in my opinion, are happy with peace at the expense of freedom.
I believe the op is correct that you cannot have one without the other but in order to live in a society you have to make rules that will inherently limit freedoms. It is agreed upon and changes constantly based on the demands of the society. True freedom for one person would be oppressive to somebody else so compromises are made that limit freedoms on everyone. There are things I wish I had more freedom to do but I have allowed those to be taken away so that others may not use freedoms that may impact me negatively. It is a social contract we all sign when we agree to live in this society.
