"Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither."
2006-09-02 16:42:08 · 21 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Other - Politics & Government
What is it about those words that you don't understand?
2006-09-03 00:42:12 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Because in this country liberty should come first before security because without liberty there is no security and if you should choose security over liberty then my friend, you deserve neither!
2006-09-02 16:44:14 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
If you give up your freedom in order to protect it...what really do you have.
Americans are becoming prisoners of their own irrational fears.
So many Americans have given their lives to protect freedoms that we are throwing away today...because we don't have the guts to demand better foreign policy and a different way of dealing with the world.
There may well come a time in this country when we look back at all we have lost and wonder "what were we thinking?"
2006-09-02 17:52:07 · answer #3 · answered by KERMIT M 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually it was "essential liberty for temporary security".
It means giving in to fear and paranoia is bad, and allowing the government to strips freedoms and liberties in the name of protecting you from the boogey man (real or imaginary) is foolish.
In all such things there needs to be a balance. But temporary (or illusionary) security is not a valid reason to sacrifice or suppress essential personal liberties.
2006-09-02 16:48:32 · answer #4 · answered by coragryph 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
With liberty comes risk. If you give up some freedoms to prevent risk, you will eventually lose all of them. For example, once you lose the right to privacy, you will soon lose the right to free speech and so on. The nature of a free society means with freedoms come great rewards, and risks.
2006-09-02 16:45:15 · answer #5 · answered by psycmikev 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
That is an extremely appropriate quote for this day and age. Ben was reminding us that if we yield to our fears and sacrifice our civil liberties in the name of protecting ourselves from the violence of others, we're allowing ourselves to be enslaved by the "protectors." This argument can be applied to the recent spying technologies, as well as Lincoln's decision to ignore the writ of habeus corpus. Excellent quote. Excellent question.
Peace.
2006-09-02 16:50:15 · answer #6 · answered by funigyrl 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
liberty is refering to society as a whole and security is society in a cage as a whole. if u were to choose homeland security u chose cages over freedom
who knows what kind of problems were going on in his life when he wrote that. society should be ruled by philosaphers and geeks because when ur stuck on ur self ur stuck on thinking or others. boredem is solved through colonization. we need space not terrorism ruling are lives
2006-09-02 16:51:02 · answer #7 · answered by Get Over It 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It was meant for those people who did not want to leave their families and homesteads (security) to go to war to fight for liberty. To him, those people did not deserve liberty nor do they deserve the security that liberty provides.
2006-09-02 16:45:38 · answer #8 · answered by aerowrite 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The phrase is in reference to personal rights over the governements. He obviously in the individual over the whole and taht no one's rights should be violated in or for others to feel "safer". It's interesting that you bring that up at such a time, considering things like The Patriot Act and similar laws.
2006-09-02 16:45:12 · answer #9 · answered by Ugs 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
He meant that it takes great courage to secure the civil liberties we once had, and that only a coward would willingly give them up without a fight.
2006-09-02 16:52:07 · answer #10 · answered by Candidus 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Benjamin Franklin meant that if you trade your freedom you dont desrve anything because he feels nothing is more important than freedom
god bless the us
2006-09-02 16:44:16 · answer #11 · answered by Via 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋