American essayist and social critic H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) wrote, “The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.”
The concept of safety and freedom sometimes collide with each other. For example, Thomas Jefferson said, “if people look for contemporary safety rather than freedom, then they will lose both safety and liberty”. However, as society changes, sometimes safety takes more role in people’s daily life. Thus, H.L. Mencken’s quote about safety and freedom applies to only some specific incidents in the current society considering how people conform to each other, how law restricts excessive freedom, and how countries are still looking for political independence.
First of all, Mencken’s quote applies to the current society since lots of people like to conform to the majority instead of having their own thought. For example, a famous psychologist Asch’s conformity experiment shows how much people want to feel safe under the majority. His experiment had three confederates and one participant at each trial. The question was shown to all four of them, and all the confederates were told to choose the wrong answer. When it was the participant’s turn, he or she also chose the wrong answer. This not just happened in the single trial, but more than half of the participants in total made the mistake. This demonstrates that even though participants have the freedom to choose what they believe is right, they chose to become a part of the majority because they wanted to be safe. Thus, this supports the quote and shows that average men want to be safe instead of free.
Secondly, Mencken’s quote is applicable considering that the current society has a law that strictly regulates some behaviors. Some people might believe the opposite and say that the law is actually a tool that assures an individual’s freedom. They claim that the law keeps people’s freedom against murders, scams, and other kinds of crimes. However, the law is actually present to keep people and society safe against freedom. For example, there was a court case between a person who came out of his house without wearing any cloth and other people who witnessed his naked body. While the man insisted that it’s his freedom to do whatever he wants if he isn’t directly harassing others' rights or freedom, he lost the case. This was because his behavior was disturbing society’s safety and order. This case also shows that the individual’s freedom is only assured until the extent of society’s rules and safety is kept. Therefore, this case shows that people prioritize safety when there’s a clash between safety and freedom.
Sometimes, his quote isn’t applicable looking at the countries that are fighting for freedom. Currently, while political law states that China has power over Hong Kong and Taiwan’s government to some extent, both of those countries are fighting for political freedom. Hong Kong and Taiwan have their distinct culture, distinct people’s way of life, and most of all, distinct political systems. Therefore, reunification certainly has a disadvantage to the people living in those countries, Therefore, many average men are also indirectly fighting and having a march against the Chinese government to gain political independence. This shows that freedom is prioritized over safety in extreme situations, and therefore supports the opposite of what the quote says.
In short, while Mencken’s quote is applicable to many situations in current society considering conformity and law, it sometimes isn’t for some countries. Therefore, it’s hard to conclude that people prioritize one over another because it’s a matter of situation.
Writer: Yeyoung Jeon (Lina)
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