Declaration of Independence
PC has a good post up on the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Like PC, I will quote from the Declaration and marvel at those marvellous words, wirrten in the heat of oppression, and as PC says a timeless anthem to freedom.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…
Marvellous, absolutely marvellous.
July 5th, 2005 at 1:06 pm
so is that why the rightwing revolution failed..when they impinged on peoples rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..they became “..destructive of those ends..”
also, that you can only govern with the consent of the governed..?..mmm!
phil(whoar.co.nz)
July 5th, 2005 at 1:59 pm
It is marvellous. It is one of the most inspiring and exact statements of classical liberalism in history. Of course imagine if the PC crowd wrote it.
July 5th, 2005 at 2:27 pm
“…secure these rights”, “consent of the people governed”, kind of contradictory don’t you think? Does might make right? Or does right make might?
“…unalienable rights…” plop. Rights are legal constructs. Therefore, the law giveth and the law taketh away.
“…it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it…” What ‘Right’? Which People? Branch Davidians, Californians, the Cornell University women’s collective? Again, plop.
Is it marvelous? No, perhaps poetic, but you need more than inspirational poetry to found a nation these days.
July 5th, 2005 at 2:56 pm
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Written by people that owned hundreds of slaves.
Great prose, inspiring stuff, but top shelf hypocricy. At least the USA is acting consistently to the founders’ “do as I do”, and not “as I say”. Given them credit for that at least.
Wake up, the real world is knocking at your door.
July 5th, 2005 at 3:03 pm
…oh, I forgot to mention:
and written by rebels who had overthrown the Government of the day by means of armed conflict.
“Why Mr Farrar, do you mean you support the notion of freedom for all (except slaves, who are sub-human, so not included in all ‘Men’, and incidentally, at the time, women), when it is enforced upon the populous by a bunch of armed rebels?”
Ok, tongue out of cheek, but stop guffawing at that piece of misleading rubbish already. I hope you don’t get similarly affected by the poem on your birthday card from Mum.
July 5th, 2005 at 4:22 pm
Unforunately we’ve can see above a resounding demonstration of why the Founding Fathers failed: nearlyy two-hundred years of subsequent idiocy (like that demonstrated above)from people blind to the Enlightenment achievement represented by the Declaration.
July 6th, 2005 at 1:00 am
Wonderful words. It’s just a shame the current administrations are taking it all down, bit by bit.
July 12th, 2005 at 12:49 pm
I always find it amuzing to read libertarians citing the declaration, apparently they have not read it.
First, it follows the Calvinist/Lockean position and base rights on the endowment of God as opposed to the autonomy of the individual.
Second, it affirms that the right to life is inalienable, i.e one cannot give them up or consent them away, which entails that suicide is not a right.
Third, it states the Governments role is to secure the rights which God laid down, i.e in the terms of libertarian polemic it is theocratic and actually has the audacity to base political opinions on theological beliefs.
Fourth it affirms that the existence of God is self evident
Fifth, it affirms the Calvinist notion of government being based in the consent of the governed, proposed by thinkers like Rutherford, the author of the Vindacae Contra Tyrannous, and Locke.
Matt
July 12th, 2005 at 4:33 pm
I think most libertarians and classic liberals ignore the flaw of those three mistaken words -
July 13th, 2005 at 4:30 pm
Actually most contemporary libertarians, deny that people have unalienable writes. According to libertarianism all rights are alienable. A person