Infinite Possibilities

Because of the infinite possibilities of perceived security threats we can never be fully secure.

This week’s question seemed particularly difficult to pin down. The amorphous nature of the question reflected the back and forth of our class discussion, during which I feel most of us got a little lost. I know I had to ask my group what exactly we were “arguing” about. After all, the definition of security is reliant on contextual reference. Personal security, local security, national security, environmental security each one involves securing something different and so requires different means for “security”. Security is variable on who you ask to define it. What do they want secure? In class we discussed how national security and national interest are often equated, mostly to the advantage of the government. Where though is the line between the two? Who gets to decide? The line will vary of course on who is the arbiter of national security. The president? Congress? The citizens as a collective whole? I don’t have an answer and I don’t think anyone could convince me that there is one.

And now I will move onto the question. There are an infinite amount of perceived security threats. This does not mean though that a state can never be fully secure. It might not be secure in the eyes of all, but others might have all of their perceived security threats met. Defining national security as having every citizen feel nationally secure is of course impossibility. You couldn’t get the entire nation to agree on any issue, even one of much lesser importance. The fact that “national security” is such a ubiquitous word in our everyday conversations has, as my group argued, diluted the significance of the term into almost nothingness because it is so outrageously linked to everything. Unable to agree then on what national security addresses and is limited to, we must settle more for a certain level of security. The best that could be hoped for would be that most of the nation would feel nationally secure.