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From: “Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg” by Kate Evans.
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this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
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"Those who would give up Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" -- Benjamin Franklin
Trading liberty for safety is the entire point of a society, you absolute dunce.
Toxic child
I'm betting this one goes well over your head, lol
What's gone over my head, exactly? The entire purpose of a rules based society is you're protected, mostly from other people.
So please, explain it.
"Temporary" is the key word in that sentence. Benjamin Franklin said this famous quote in response to the governor of Pennsylvania being asked to levy a new tax to support the French and Indian war, which an old money family, the Penns, who ruled from afar, were trying to bribe him to veto. Ben Franklin was very much in favor of this tax and very much pro big government, so long as it was being done by the people (contrary to what all the libertarians who quote him seem to think). His argument was that if the governor kept taking bribes from the Penns, and just rolling over and doing whatever they told him to do, consequences to the state be damned, just so the Penns would keep the money flowing, he deserved whatever was coming to him when they decided to stop.
Imagine being this dense
You heard it first from old Ben, stop saving money for retirement, you’re just giving up on your current liberty to have some temporary safety later in life.
The irony that in this quote he was supporting the authority of government specifically on taxation for long term defense. "Temporary" was kind of the whole point.
Which is precisely why it works in this context. He was talking about the Pennsylvania governor's ability to levy a new tax which some Englanders who ruled from afar were trying to bribe him to veto. His argument was that if people gave up their ability to govern themselves and let some faraway Leviathan do it in the hopes that said Leviathan would keep them safe, they deserved whatever was coming to them. I think this translates nicely onto "Socialism is not some Christmas gift for those who accept a dictator now in the hopes of achieving freedom in the future."