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Hi. This is Jonathan Wilbur, here, answering two questions presented by the Institute
for Humane Studies' Learn Liberty Program.
The Questions are as follows:
(1) What do you think the founding fathers meant by "all men are created equal"?
(2) Do you think america is the land of equality?
I'll answer question one first.
The Founding Fathers
Thomas Jefferson in particular, in saying that all men are created equal,
preferred not to physiological, psychological, or socioeconomic
conditions,
but rather was referring to moral conditions.
Every life is initiated with complete ethical innocence.
As such, from our birth,
we are entitled to reciprocal treatment of ethical benevolence and the same
magnitude of such to each man.
From this, we can derive the moral treatise
that no man is righteous to govern other men without their consent.
To govern otherwise is to ignore the moral equality
due to the governed.
When thomas jefferson claims the moral equality of men,
he was doing so in a context illustrate the virtue of the Consent of the Governed,
and to scorn
the doctrine of Divine Right.
This leads us to the question (2).
Is America
a Land of Equality?
Regretfully, I must answer in the negative.
in the age of corporate, foreign,
and personal welfare;
in the age of unions
tariffs, subsidies,
and imminent domain,
the coercion of government--and not the bilateral ethical consideration
of neighbors--has become the new paradigm of rights.
Moral Equality
has been cast aside,
and the monopoly force
has become the favoritist arbiter of rights. Thank you.