Every government is authoritarian to some extent. The question is how much liberty are you willing to give up in exchange for long-term stability and comfort?
To me, absolute liberty seems to be just as wrong of an answer as absolute authoritarianism.
Something nobody seems to want to come to terms with: true freedom requires effort on your part. Wishing there will come a day where the final perfect law will be passed, or the perfect leader will come along, and you'll have liberty and freedom at last, is ridiculous.
Freedom comes at a price. It always will. That means recognizing that it can put you in danger sometimes. An authoritarian regime would shut down crime much quicker than a free nation would. Does that make authoritarianism preferable? Hell no. I'd rather defend my property/person/family myself when the time comes. Because as you've probably heard countless times: "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away."
There is a difference between authoritarian government and belief that authority is a good thing. You might believe in the latter and yet very much oppose the former.
I'm not claiming authoritarian states are sunshine and roses, just that freedom is a lot more complex and fuzzier than is sometimes appreciated, and that in some regards we're noticeably less free than some (some!) of those states, despite their being authoritarian. I'm not saying we should switch to being authoritarian in the name of freedom—most other liberal democracies also manage to be freer on several of these issues than we are, though, sure, some are less-free by other measures (but, on balance, I think we're pretty far on the less-free-as-felt-day-to-day-by-most-people side, as liberal democracies go).
Bollocks to the idea that the authoritarians always win. Look at the French revolution, Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, the recent Arab uprisings...there are so many, many examples in history where the authoritarians have been crushed by those seeking freedom. We just have to step up our game.
Furthermore, I see that as a fairly selfish attitude. Whilst I might have the ability to "escape", others might not, so I see it as my duty to fight for the freedoms of others to make that choice.
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