“There’s a presumption out here — and pardon me, I hope it’s not one you embrace, because I’m gonna call it a stupid presumption — that any time you pass a law regulating conduct, you diminish freedom. I would ask people to think about the state of nature with no laws at all … and you decide to pass a law that says you cannot commit murder; you can’t kill somebody. Are you freer after the law was passed or before the law was passed?”

— Former Attorney General John Ashcroft to an Atlantic Monthly reporter.

Ashcroft’s departure comes as a positive relief to world citizens who recognized his sophistic arguments as mere covers for a power crusade. Who would agree that life without The Patriot Act boils down to lawlessness and Hobbesian destruction?  

Now we may look forward, knowing that critical engagement — as always — is one measure we may take against paternalistic policies and misinformation.

Toyin