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0 pointsusefulcat11y ago0 comments

I think the point is that the context is fundamentally different:

"In short, Franklin was not describing some tension between government power and individual liberty. He was describing, rather, effective self-government in the service of security as the very liberty it would be contemptible to trade. Notwithstanding the way the quotation has come down to us, Franklin saw the liberty and security interests of Pennsylvanians as aligned."

http://www.lawfareblog.com/2011/07/what-ben-franklin-really-...

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jessriedel11y ago

This is a vastly better article, and actually makes a reasonable case. Thanks.

Still, I don't think it's fair to say the context is "fundamentally different". In Franklin's situation, the trade-off was to give up a degree of the colony's self-governance (with power taken by the unelected governor) in order to get safety from the war being fought on their frontier. Yes, in his case it wasn't so much personal (individual) liberty as it was the notion of colonial self-governance. But I don't think it's so vastly different as to say the quote's original meaning has been greatly distorted.

Here's the original letter:

http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=6&p...

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