The Lesser Evil

I caught most of the discussion on NPR's Talk of the Nation at lunch today with historian Michael Ignatieff, author of a recent book, The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror. Very interesting discussion on the tension between "protecting ourselves from terrorism" and "giving up our civil liberties." One exchange between Mr. Ignatieff and a listener who emailed provided a summary of his basic argument: The emailer claimed she hadn't seen any erosion of civil liberties and so didn't see what all the fuss was about. He responded by saying that if you weren't a Muslim or an Arab-American with an expired work visa. . .you probably haven't seen much change in civil liberties except for broad-consensus stuff like extra security at the airport. But he went on to stress that if those of us who aren't the current "target group" don't stand up and make noise about Bill of Right violations whenever they occur to anyone, there will certainly be an erosion of democracy. I think he's correct. Freedom is risky.