Benjamin Franklin once said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." That quote often comes up in the context of new technology and concerns about government surveillance. Simply put; and I'm paraphrasing here; but Ben Franklin essentially said at one point, those who would exchange self-government for a bit of security deserve neither to be self-govern nor security. The quotation is considered to come from a letter that Franklin had written on behalf of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
Very few citizens who quote these words, however, have any idea where they come from or what Franklin really meant when he wrote them. That is to be expected, since they are far more often quoted than explained, and the context in which they emerged was a political conflict of controlled resonance to contemporary readers. What's more the “purchase a little temporary safety” of which Franklin complains was not the ceding of power to a gigantic government in exchange for some promise of protection from foreign threat; for in Franklin’s letter, the word “purchase” does not seem to have been a metaphor.
The governor was blaming the assembly of postponing the appropriation of money for frontier defense by demanding to include the Penn lands …show more content…
It is a quotation that defends the authority of a legislature to govern on the grounds of mutual security. Briefly, Franklin was not expressing on any tension between individual liberty and government power. He was talking; however, about competent self- government in the service of security; as the very liberty it would be dishonorable to trade. Basically, Franklin, thought that the liberty and security of Pennsylvania should be in perfect
Very few citizens who quote these words, however, have any idea where they come from or what Franklin really meant when he wrote them. That is to be expected, since they are far more often quoted than explained, and the context in which they emerged was a political conflict of controlled resonance to contemporary readers. What's more the “purchase a little temporary safety” of which Franklin complains was not the ceding of power to a gigantic government in exchange for some promise of protection from foreign threat; for in Franklin’s letter, the word “purchase” does not seem to have been a metaphor.
The governor was blaming the assembly of postponing the appropriation of money for frontier defense by demanding to include the Penn lands …show more content…
It is a quotation that defends the authority of a legislature to govern on the grounds of mutual security. Briefly, Franklin was not expressing on any tension between individual liberty and government power. He was talking; however, about competent self- government in the service of security; as the very liberty it would be dishonorable to trade. Basically, Franklin, thought that the liberty and security of Pennsylvania should be in perfect