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Government = surrender of liberties
Read that last bit again. The nature of every form of government that ever existed has been to limit the liberty of its citizens. In fact, the whole purpose of government is to mutually benefit everyone by limiting the undesirable liberties of "the other guy". I don't know what Ben Franklin was addressing with that quote, but out of context it makes absolutely no sense.
Here's an overly simplistic example. If I lived in an area lacking government control, I would have the liberty to murder, rape, steal, etc. Others would have the right to do the same to me. I think we would all agree that the rational thing to do in this purely hypothetical situation is for everyone to sacrifice some liberty in exchange for security against others exercising their liberties to harm others.
Sure, one might say, it is fine to give up your liberty kill: but that is fundamentally different than a civil right.
I respond with two examples:
1. Minimum wage laws: Most people have never thought about minimum wage laws as restrictions on contracts made between an individual and a business, but that is precisely what they are. The minimum wage tells individuals that they are not permitted to enter into contracts in which they make less than a specified hourly wage. Thus, the law is a direct limit on individual liberty.
2. Gun control: Some towns and states have laws forbidding the possession of particular types of firearms. These laws have the effect of taking away citizens' liberty to bear certain types of arms.
In the first example, it will be objected that the sacrifice of liberty in preventing people from assuming low-paying jobs is worth the security gained from preventing evil businesses from forcing people to work terrible jobs. This objection is precisely correct: minimum wage laws sacrifice the liberty of the individual in order to gain security against the abuses of businesses.
In the second example, it will be objected that gun control is intended to protect the public good, that guns serve no purpose but to hurt other people. This objection reveals that gun control advocates are willing to sacrifice the right of citizens to bear arms in order to gain security against potential gun violence.
For the above reasons, I believe that people who enjoy saying things like, "My freedom has no price. I will not give it up at any cost." are not being genuine. With the definitional exception of ANARCHISTS, everybody is willing to sacrifice certain liberties in order to gain additional security. You can tell Ben Franklin to shove it.
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The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
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