[QuantumFunnel]

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

[GuinansEyebrows]

i will never tire of the irony of a man who owned humans being lauded as a freedom fighter.

[pseudalopex]

Benjamin Franklin became an abolitionist.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin#Slavery

[CamperBob2]

Whatever you're doing at the moment, I'll bet somebody 200 years from now will condemn it.

It might not even take that long, at the rate we're progressing.

[estearum]

And yet every society makes exactly this trade off.

There is no such thing as avoiding this trade off entirely.

[dwattttt]

"Those (the Penn family) who would give up essential Liberty (money & power), to purchase a little temporary Safety (a veto over a taxation dispute, trying to raise money from the Penn family), deserve neither Liberty (said money & power) nor Safety (the defense that said taxed money would've bought from the present French & Indian wars)"

[zahlman]

The context of the original quote doesn't prevent others from finding it more generally applicable or well-put.

[Terr_]

> Those (the Penn family) who would give up essential Liberty

No, you've got it half-backwards.

He's saying the democratic legislature shouldn't forever give up the citizens' collective Liberty to tax the ultra-mega-rich (Penns) in exchange for a one-time Security payment from those rich near-nobles.

https://www.npr.org/2015/03/02/390245038/ben-franklins-famou...