It is a long known fact, that
The product of Freedom and Security is a constant. To gain more freedom of thought and/or action, you must give up some security, and vice versa.
But this is wrong. Yes, you get freedom in exchange for security, but you don't get security for freedom. Or at least not always. You see, you can give up a measure of freedom for security and actually increase your total security.
But not very much. There's a delicate tipping point, if you go past it, you not only lose freedom, but security as well. This is obvious when a society abolishes free speech to curb extremism. You are after the security of not having people say things that motivate extremist violent action, but in the process you institute a totalitarian state with a dystopian thought police.
I'm not sure however where that tipping point is. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say you cross it when you're so dependent on whatever provides your security that a breakdown is catastrophic, i.e. not easily recoverable.
By that I mean that you are so dependent on something/someone (e.g. the Chinese for cheap stuff or the Russians for gas) that when they for some reason cannot or will not provide the stuff you need, you cannot recover from this easily.
Obviously we as First World are in such a state of dependency. Just sayin'.
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