7 Great Virtues
Summer Peterson
12-13-06
Hour 3
7 Great Virtues
- Ben Franklin -
The first virtue Ben Franklin wanted was “An Aversion to Tyranny”. The main idea of this to Ben is that he doesn’t like tyranny, which is power or control of one person. He didn’t like to be told what to do to and he also liked some control and therefore, have a limited government. Ben didn’t want any dictatorship either, which meant no kings or queens. Franklin realized that he didn’t like the idea of tyranny when he was 12 years old. He became an apprentice at the print shop of his older brother, James, who tended to be a tougher boss.
I think that Aversion to Tyranny definitely still exists in America today. We still do not have any dictatorship in today’s America. We vote as a democracy for our presidents, congress, etc. We do have a president, to represent America and to help make final decisions, but we get to choose who we want to elect. Basically, it’s power to the people, even though we have a presidential leader to help guide us.
The second virtue Ben Franklin wanted America to have was “Free Press”. Basically, what this meant was that you can write or print whatever you’d like and not get in trouble for it. Although there were some limits to this, there was little to no government control of the press. This let people say what they wanted and free mindedly write in the press. Franklin said, “There would be very little printed, if publishers produced only things that offended nobody.” I, myself have to agree to this, because if you think about it, it’s true. Franklin also believed that the surest guard against tyranny and arbitrary power was free expression, the free flow of ideas and a free press. He felt no tyrannical society could long exist, if it cannot control the flow of information and ideas.
Like the first virtue, free press still exists today. You are able to freely write what you’d like in the press. For example, it is okay to write to the...
View Full Essay