Prophesies and Slippery Slopes

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

These words were said by one of our Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, about a tax dispute between the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the Penn family, the proprietary family of the Pennsylvania colony who ruled it from England.

While we are now a 21^st Century society, with different domestic and foreign affairs issues than existed in the latter half of the 18^th Century, those exact words could be applied to the current Coronavirus pandemic, how it could be applied to how we have tried to deal with it, and the ramifications which could result if we continue to allow the government to “advise” us how we need to give up more of the freedoms and liberties which are so precious to us.

Presently, we are mostly “sheltering in place” in order to prevent the continued spread of this disease, which could have an astronomical mortality rate across our nation. On the surface, it seems like sound advice. While other societies in this world may find such “advice” part of their normal lifestyle where they don’t enjoy the freedoms and liberties we have taken for granted, this concept should make our ears perk up.  We are on a slippery slope.

We have had other circumstances in our history where the people gave into government “requests” to allow the government to take control of their lives for what the government considered “for the greater good”: the Civil War, where Abraham Lincoln suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus, the Great Depression, where the banks were closed to prevent people to get to their monies on deposit and owed to them, and World War II, where men were ordered to enroll for conscription (the draft) and while the people were told it would be only temporary, it is still a requirement when a male citizen turns 18.

In each case, the government justified its actions “for the greater good”, and Americans accepted that premise as a show of loyalty to the government. And presently, “sheltering in place” is “for the greater good”, too. But as well, more of our freedoms and liberties are being eroded with each crisis the government finds challenging to its well-being. Presently, “sheltering in place” is a politically correct way of saying “voluntary quarantine.”

Quarantine is a period of time, generally from the Latin for forty days, or can also be defined as “enforced isolation”. So, ‘sheltering in place” sounds much nicer. Therein lies the problem. We are doing this “for the greater good.” Right now.

But someday, we could be asked to give up more of our freedoms “on a temporary basis” and not have as friendly a government as we have now, where we believe it really is temporary. What if that government points to the other times in our history where the people gave up their freedoms and liberties voluntarily and “temporarily”, and then never regain them? Hence, the slippery slope.

This is a cautionary tale, maybe not so much for us, but for our posterity. Then the words spoken by Franklin will have come to life. Maybe, we need to question now, why we are asked to sacrifice more freedoms “for the greater good”. That should be the role of the media, which for the last thirty years or so, has failed miserably in its responsibility to “We the People”. Instead of covering up the deeds of one and asking “gotcha” questions of another, the media must become more fair and balanced to all future administrations and congresses, so we can know and understand the truth which lies behind the actions and words of those in government.

Or, we will rue the day when Franklin’s words will become a fulfilled prophesy.