Maximal Vigilance

There is an excellent piece on today’s Comment is Free by AC Grayling. Talking about civil liberties, the Birkbeck Professor elegantly demolishes the “nothing to hide” defence of growing state power. He writes:

“It is all or some of naive, lazy and irresponsible not to be maximally vigilant regarding civil liberties and human rights, because it is a datum that the liberties of individuals are inconvenient for all states and their security services, and in dispensations where there are few if any restraints (think the Soviet Union, or even today's Russia - and China) it is liberty which quickly and comprehensively suffers.”

AC Grayling writes with a rare simplicity. What a useful man.