The first quote I noticed on the board was the Ben Franklin quote stating “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” This seems like a perfect and very compelling quote for the pro-privacy argument, especially since it was said by an important figure in United State’s history. But in actuality it is used largely out of context; after some further investigation, I came across an NPR article about the actual context of the quote. Robert Siegel points out that this quotes is more of a “pro-taxation” and “pro-defense spending” quote since is was in response to the legislature trying to tax the Penn family for property. While this quote has lost its context in the 21st century debate, I think it still serve a good purpose in putting many people’s thoughts into words . It portrays the idea that being willing to trade some freedom for some confinement feels inherently un-American and goes against everything the nation was built upon. I personally still have mixed feelings towards the pro-privacy, pro-security debate. I think that Little Brother showed the absolute extreme of invasion of privacy that could occur. Since it was so extreme, it seemed unrealistic to me and has left me on the fence regarding pro-privacy. While I would rather not have people reading my personal text messages, I can understand being pro-security and being willing to give up “as much (privacy) as necessary to feel safe.”

This is the NPR article:

http://www.npr.org/2015/03/02/390245038/ben-franklins-famous-liberty-safety-quote-lost-its-context-in-21st-century