hat this is the only thing that that enhanced power can be used for. We need to
consider the possibility that diminishing liberty might also diminish security against
the state, even as it enhances security against terrorism.
(iv) Real versus symbolic consequences. Though talk of adjusting the balance
sounds like hard-headed consequentialism, it often turns out that those who
advocate it have no idea what difference it will actually make to the terrorist threat.
Accordingly we must subject these balancing arguments to special scrutiny to see
how far they are based on fair estimates of actual consequences and how far they
are rooted in the felt need for reprisal, or the comforts of purely symbolic action.