Jefferson’s Tower
“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.”
250 years ago, these words did more than launch a nation; they outlined the core structure on which that nation would attempt to stand. Of course, there has been much debate over the past two and a half centuries over the exact meaning of these enumerated rights.
These rights do not sit equally side-by-side but are rather stacked in order from bottom to top –
- At the foundation is Life. In the absence of life there are no other rights. This is the most concrete level, approaching a black-and-white binary with very little room for abstraction.
- The next level is Liberty. A citizen’s liberty should be treated as broadly as possible, limited chiefly where it violates the life or liberty of another citizen. This is the area where the law and government resides as there will be constant debate over what exactly is liberty.
- At the top level is The Pursuit of Happiness. This is the pure philosophical and/or theological realm. It is important to make the distinction between “pursuit” and “attainment” of happiness. The latter is a limit which can be approached but not surpassed in this world and is absolutely not a “right”.
The words are elegant and the ideas are nearly perfect but, of course there have been many incidents of America failing to consistently rise up to these ideals. In the near future we will explore these enumerated rights and the ideals behind them with an examination of particular situations from the past and hypotheticals of the future.
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