ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by light years,

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another measurement of non-human aging.

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Yeah. You know, remember Buzz? All right.

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Check out the excerpt.

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[ mumbles ]

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And the question:

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The sentiment expressed above relates most strongly to tension between... what...

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and what?

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Hmm. [ mumbles ]

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All right. Okay, so let's figure out the vibe of

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what this author is saying.

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Take that first sentence.

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"Unfortunately, the government has

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implemented measures that go light years beyond

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anything conceivably necessary to combat terrorism."

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Huh. Seems like he's a little twisted up about

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that PATRIOT Act, which gave the U.S. government

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sweeping powers to monitor individuals

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thought to have connections with terrorist threats.

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So let's see which answer best describes that push/pull.

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All right, does the sentiment in the excerpt

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relate most strongly to the tension between A -

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the federal government and the states' rights?

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Hmm. Well, the debate around national security

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sorta transcends arguments about federal versus states' rights,

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or the efficiency of the government, for that matter.

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So that knocks out A and B.

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Is the argument about the limits of government surveillance

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related to discussions of D -

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interventionism and isolationism?

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Hmm. Well we're talking about civil liberties here, and that's

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domestic policy, not foreign policy.

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So D is out of this particular world.

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Which means that the sentiment expressed in the excerpt

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most strongly relates to the tension between C -

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individual rights and collective security.

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Like what's the right of the individual versus the right of the

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country to remain free and look strong and all that.

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All right, since even before the founding of the country,

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there has been tension between individual rights

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and collective security.

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In the Bill of Rights, the founding fathers listed

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civil liberties that the government

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could not curtail even if it weakened the security

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of the nation as a whole.

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Talk about a security blanket.

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So C is the right answer.

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To the founding fathers,

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some things were more important than the nation's safety.

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Like wig maintenance.

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Yeah. You got any hairspray around here?

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Ugh. This thing itches just terribly.

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[ whistle ]

Full Transcript