What is Freedom?
America has always been known as the beacon for freedom throughout the world, but What is Freedom?
Oddly, you would think we would all have the same simple definition, but in the land of the free, I have found that very few people understand what freedom actually is. In this journey to find out what freedom really is, I was led to one of our founding fathers Benjamin Franklin for the answer. Here are a few contributions of Benjamin Franklin.
Assisted in Writing the Declaration of Independence
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Persuaded the French to Aid the Revolutionary Effort
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Helped Create the United States Constitution
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Negotiated Peace with Great Britian
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Understanding Competition, Waste and Ease
Understanding Competition, Waste, and Ease We are about to dig into a topic that will fundamentally change the way you think about freedom and systems of government. After many years of study, I know when we ignore Benjamin Franklin, we do so at our own peril. Franklin was as great an economist as anyone who ever lived. He understood the essence of human nature perhaps better than anyone ever has. One of his most significant realizations was the concepts of competition, waste, and ease explained how nature worked and how it should be applied to the marketplace and government. You may
Franklin’s Hidden Role at the Constitutional Convention
Franklin biographer Walter Isaacson once said, “Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us.” What he means is there is more to Franklin than meets the eye. Isaacson is right, Franklin is winking at us. His role at the Constitutional Convention was crucially important, and without him there would most likely not be a United States. We can understand this based on Franklin’s known diplomacy in France including his many appearances at the most famous Salons of Paris. Historians seek certainty—a document, a letter, a record or some such thing that can be seen and touched. In a
Franklin’s System of Freedom is Mechanical
The first thing one needs to understand about Franklin’s system of freedom is that it is mechanical as opposed to philosophical. In America, we all too often think philosophically, tracing the roots of freedom from Greco/Roman republics and Judeo/Christian traditions. Franklin concentrated on how nature operates and how human beings behave. Much of the discovery of Franklin’s system came through discussions with my Chinese friends. They, of course, have no Greco/Roman/Judeo/Christian background whatsoever, but freedom is very possible there. A mechanical system has components, it can be duplicated. We now know automobiles can be built anywhere in the world to
Favorite Franklin Quotes
Benjamin Franklin was a very wise man. Here is a collection of some of our favorite quotes from him, not just on freedom, but on life.