In his view, too many Europeans have pursued a comfortable, protected existence since the end of World War II.
With threats to life on all sides, both natural and man-made, childhood in the Kansas Territory was far from being a sheltered, protected existence.
The long life is probably a consequence of their protected existence.
A large, powerful ministry (the Home Office), with experienced civil servants such as Sir Robert Armstrong, wanted change, but in the last instance protected the existence of an institution they believed the country and world to be better for.
He was an Israeli patriot, whose project was to protect the existence of Israel by making a series of agreements.
In this sense, Israel's most pressing interest is not peace or regional accommodation with its neighbours but the need to ensure a Jewish majority at all costs to protect its "existence".
A government without the watchful eye of an alert media or an involved public finds ways to grow and protect its existence.
"What is horrible is that everyone is now protecting his existence," Sayyid Abdullah Nizam, a prominent cleric in Damascus, told me.
"Any confusion or lack of clarity about the underlying facts," they wrote, "resulted from an entirely good faith but poorly executed attempt by this office, in drafting the complaint, to protect the existence and identity of a confidential source".
This Elliot can hack into any cellphone, television or security network, even visit two places simultaneously; to protect his existence, he has his digital finger on a nuclear device.
We are at a moment when the concern is not merely safeguarding individuals' human rights but also protecting the existence of those rights themselves.
