> Err, that's supposed to be essential liberty and temporary security. > > Any society that *doesn't* give up at least a little liberty > is anarchy and > Franklin was not, to my knowledge, an anarchist. > > On Dec 10, 2010, at 8:19 AM, Leonardo Rodrigues > <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin (an american! diplomat!): > > > > "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little > > security will deserve neither and lose both." > >
I would have to agree that the people of the United States have lost some of their essential libertys. The problem has been in defining what exactly ARE the essential libertys and then getting our congress and our president to keep their mitts off of them. Still, I would argue that even now there are few places in the world where the people can enjoy liberty as freely as in the United States. Additionally, for purposes of this thread, the Ben Franklin quote is a complete straw-man. Ben Franklin was talking about giving up of essential liberty by allowing the government to take it away in exchange for some promised security. The origin of this thread has noting to do with a government action and everything to do with an action by a private company against another private company. I suspect that more often than not when that particular Ben Franklin quote comes out it is in an attempt by the quoter to feel superior to those he is quoting to. If that was the case, it was an epic fail in both not looking up the quote to get the text right and not considering that the quote doesn't fit the situation. s
