The question comes up from time to time, is freedom really worth it? Why is it so important? The easiest answer is to point to genocide, slavery or any of a near infinite number of examples of man being inhumane to man. The worst such examples are when an elite group has the power of government/military to impose it's will, sometimes via the law, on another group. Freedom is when a man or a nation is limited from exercising such power over others. Freedom is also following our desires in how we make our livelihoods, who we marry, or hitting the open roads or hiking trails. Freedom has also been defined here as the ability for someone to be as dumb as they want--on their own dime.
Freedom can have its costs, in humiliation, money, time and even our lives; but those from countries where there is a despotic government never question the value of freedom, only the lack of its defense. But some in modern western society tend to take it for granted, allowing government every greater power, often in exchange for government provided security--thinking for some reason that their government would never abuse its power. That is government's basic purpose after all, providing security via the police, military and court system; and while most people are familiar with the concept of the corrupting influence of power, we tend not to recognize the problem in our own back yard. We corrupt our government by bestowing too much power on it, and ourselves by shirking our responsibilities to remain informed and to always champion liberty.
Benjamin Franklin has been famously paraphrased many times from this original quote in Poor Richard's Almanac in 1738, "Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power." Here is another slight variation of the many paraphrases: Only liberty guarantees whatever security we have, and if you trade too much of it away, you will loose both. How much is too much? When the only way to get it back is revolution--a point which is seldom recognized until it is passed.
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