Properly Said

I know that it rings when thought of as literature. I know that it's firmly part of the American lexicon. I know that I'm playing with alternate history even. But I wish Thomas Jefferson hadn't said that our inalienable rights were 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'. I wish he'd stuck with the original terminology.

The philosopher John Locke coined the phrase 'Life, Liberty, and Property' which Jefferson supposedly adapted for use in the Declaration of Independence. Locke's point? That life and liberty can't mean much if you can't own. You have no real control of your life and freedom of movement and thought if you cannot say about your home, your land, hell, even the shirt on your back, 'This is mine'. You must be able to control what is near and dear to you for freedom to be possible. You can't do that if society owns all.

I doubt that you can pursue happiness either. But softening the language gives folks such as, oh, socialists, a wrench to take property away. The US isn't founded on that, it's founded on happiness, they may say, and then proceed to instruct you on what manner of happiness you may pursue, dependent of course on what they like at the moment. If that means your business or farm, c'est la vie.

Only the person can make a better world. Only a person who can control what is within his grasp can learn the responsibility of stewardship. Change the world? You want to make the world a better place? Then clean your room, Jordan Petersen remarked quite profoundly. But you have to own it to appreciate responsibility for it.

Basic morality requires the 'rugged' individual over the 'warm' collective, Mr. Mamdani. Ye speak with forked tongue.