B. Franklin knew what he was talking about

Holistic SurvivalThe following quote comes from Founding Father, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a guy unafraid to fly his kite in a lightning storm, Benjamin Franklin.

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Preach on, Brother Franklin! This quote begs the question, why are the powers-that-be always trying to scare us out of a bit more of that liberty? For all of human history, politicians, bureaucrats, and interest groups have played tug-of-war for control of the hearts and minds of the public by manufacturing crisis after crisis and then inventing a solution that’s is normally worse than the original problem.

A recent example. British Petroleum makes a small error, blows up one of their own oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 men and releasing most of the oil in the known universe into the ecosystem in the process. A problem? Certainly! A good reason to never drill another drop of oil in the United States? Only if paying $20 for a gallon of gas and being an eternal economic hostage to the Middle East is your idea of a good time.

This was an incident. A vexing incident but still just an incident. It’s a problem that is being dealt with and will resolve itself without handing over control to a government that would whizz on its own shoes without someone else holding – well, you get the idea. To hand over more liberty every time the media screams, “We’re all gonna die!” is a bad idea if you still believe in the great experiment called the United States of America. Once gone, freedom will not grace our doors again.

Benjamin saw it coming.

The Holistic Survival Team

Flickr / cliff1066