I would like to set the record straight.
When I originally composed those words it was with a particular context in mind – prior to the American Revolution, the Pennsylvania legislature was in conflict with the colonial governor. The legislature wanted the ability to tax the Penn family landholdings to pay for defense of the frontier. The Penns refused to grant this taxing power, and the rift between the legislature and the royal proprietors grew wider and wider. The Penns offered to pay a small lump sum, but like with today’s Non-Disclosure Agreements, it was a baldfaced attempt to buy off the legislature (purchase temporary safety) while avoiding the greater responsibility of paying taxes on their substantial properties. The bottom line was all they really cared about…defending the frontier (and the safety of the citizens living there) meant very little to them.
Not long afterwards, when the American Revolution began, these same words could easily have been applied to the situation of the thirteen colonies, for the mistreatment by corrupt royal governors and kings caused citizens to similarly resent the heavy-handed authoritarian control being exerted by England at the time. Then, too, profiteering was behind these conflicts as well. But, I need to point out, my original quote did not apply to these circumstances, but rather to the earlier Pennsylvania dispute.
Parallels with today?
I will admit there are deep parallels to what is happening in our country today. But not in the same way that some people think.
I am concerned that a small but vocal minority have misinterpreted my words to mean that they have the liberty to do whatever they please, even if it runs counter to the general health and welfare of the populace. To be more specific, having freedom does not give you the right to scream “Fire” in the middle of a crowded theatre and create a panic. Nor does it allow you to endanger other citizens by resisting or thwarting well-intentioned efforts by medical experts to stem the tide of the current coronavirus pandemic.
Keep six feet apart, or you’ll soon be six feet under.
When these experts urge the wearing of masks or the practice of social distancing, it’s for a very good reason – to prevent more deaths from happening when the virus is unknowingly spread by selfish individuals whose only aim is profit, or by so-called "patriots" engaging in acts of ill-advised rebellion, or by quarantine-weary miscreants indulging in unruly drinking, carousing, or partying (contrary to public mandates temporarily restricting such activities in large public gatherings.)
Yes, you have the liberty to go around without a mask in the privacy of your own property – but not to go out in public and contaminate others, especially those with weakened immune systems (such as the elderly) who may be especially at risk. Your foolish, self-centered actions could seriously endanger their lives!
So, to all who are misusing my quote to give license to their own unpatriotic, reckless behavior – cease and desist, I say!
If you’d really like to put into practice the true principle of my message, then it would behoove you to protest the authoritarian excesses of the current regime in Washington, which is using the excuse of the pandemic to get rich on the suffering of countless people, to take away voting rights, to deprive citizens, journalists and media of their constitutional rights of free speech, and to cut back or eliminate many essential services like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and the U.S. postal service.
These, my friends, are the signs of tyranny, the same sort of abuses of power that we Founding Fathers originally fought against in the 1700s. And if you are so blind that you can’t see that, then you do not deserve the liberty that we struggled so hard to obtain for you, at the tremendous cost of bloodshed and lives lost in the Revolutionary War.
Your humble servant,
B. Franklin