i just happen to like apples and i am not afraid of snakes - mnadler

To be “fully” secure is almost an oxymoron, as according to Wolfer’s article, security is a negative value- it’s the absence of a threat. As we established in class, security applies to many aspects of a state’s operation, and sometimes those aspects clash. For example, if the US was to be “fully secure” from terrorist attacks, it might be a good idea to wire-tap without warrants, or to access private information of the citizenry. However, those steps would not be conducive to maintaining a population “fully secure” in their rights and civil liberties. Wolfer writes, “If nations were not concerned with the protection of values other than their survival as independent states, most of them would not have had to be seriously worried about their security.” Thus security is not just physical or territorial security; it’s economic, social, even psychological/emotional security.
So no, a nation cannot ever be “fully” secure, but would it even want to be? Naturally you don’t ever want an attack on your territory, so physical security is pretty much an absolute. However not everything is that black and white. Take capitalism for example, it’s characterized by booms and busts. Or financial markets, those are never “fully secure,” their entire operation relies on their volatility. Maybe the inability to ever attain that perfect, complete, “full” security is what makes the world interesting and not Eden.

p.s. I went to the Sackler Gallery's Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur exhibit today [Wed] and I highly recommend it. It's a stunningly intricate collection of paintings from 17th century India. Some are funny, some are bizzarre, and some downright terrifying (think Hieronymus Bosch). Very interesting! [Red line to Metro Center, then blue line to Smithsonian and it's at 2 o'clock when you exit the metro]
p.p.s. When getting back on the metro there was a mini protest about the (il)legality of police searches on the metro and they gave me a flier. Take the quiz, I scored 5/8.