What are Our cORE assumptions
" 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.-"
Have you ever stopped to really think about this sentence? The Declaration of Independence is one of the documents that set out the fundamental relationship between American citizens and the state they live in. It was also quite revolutionary--and still is. Let's deconstruct it a bit:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident": These men were placing their lives and fortunes on the line believing that the following ideas were logically unchallengeable. In formal logic, a statement that is self-evident is not one that is the result of a logical argument. It is a fundamental truth that everything else is built on.
"...that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..." This is a statement about the relationship of individuals to each other, and it is a statement about our relationship to the state. Equality is not granted by the state or any human agency. It is super-natural. Neither we nor the government can change it.
Further, "that among these [unalienable rights] are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." This is an indirect reference to John Locke's The Second Treatise on Civil Government. The way Locke phrased it is that we are obligated by nature to not harm "the life, the liberty, health, limb, or goods of another." The final sentence makes this clearer:
"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..." Governments exist in order to make sure people are able to live their lives without fear of death, theft or other harm from other human beings and remain legitimate only as long as they do not themselves violate those rights.
So let us summarize:
1. Human rights are innate, and not granted by the state.
2. The state exists only to secure the rights people are born with.
3. The state can be reformed or abolished if it, itself, violates those rights.
4. Those core rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
