Life, Liberty, and Happiness
Did you catch the error in the title?
The Declaration of Independence enshrines several rights which are, to use the Declaration’s own words, inalienable. They cannot be sent away, cannot be breached, and are more natural to the human condition than breathing. They are the rights which every totalitarian regime, from Gilgamesh’s Uruk to Stalin’s Russia, have worked tirelessly to erase.
The right to live, the right to have an opinion, and the right to pursue personal happiness.
You will note that the error in the title was corrected.
The right to live is the most simple right, and the basis of any just justice system. The government cannot kill you because it feels like it. Your neighbors cannot kill you because they feel like it, and you cannot kill people because you feel like it. This right enshrines the sanctity of life. To kill is not the ultimate sin, but it is the gravest one. To kill is weighty, it cannot be embarked upon lightly, and the right to life means that no person or government can kill another without due process. The right to life is the right to have years of court cases and appeals before talks of killing can even begin.
The right to liberty is a deeply misunderstood right in its own right (pardon the pun). The right to liberty is the right to think what you want, the right to say what you want, and the right to write what you want (I’m full of em today). This right is the most dangerous one to the totalitarian regimes because it is extraordinarily difficult to control what people think. Thoughts are unreasonable, uncontrollable, and our understanding of what makes them and how they are affected is rudimentary at best. If you can think President Donald Trump is an ass-hat and write that opinion on the internet, and then not have the Trump Frump knocking down your door to drag you away to Gitmo, then you have the right to liberty. Let me give an example: Ahem…
I think President Donald Trump is an ass-hat and his Iran foreign policy is about as comprehensible as my three year old nephew is when he’s throwing a temper tantrum.
The last right is the right to happiness… except it’s not. The last right is the right to Pursue happiness. That one word carries the difference between freedom, and oppression. Happiness is not a right that the government can give and take away. Governmentally mandated happiness is absolutely guaranteed to lead to unhappiness. Every totalitarian regime, in order to establish itself, must first promise that people will do better under the regime than under whatever came before. Happy and satisfied countries are not prone to violent revolutions, and happy people don’t tend to riot, burn down buildings, and punch cops. They promise happiness, but it is always a lie. The government cannot give you happiness; but it can give you the right to pursue your own.
The government can give you the right to read the books that make you happy, play the games that make you happy, and watch the films that make you happy. The government can give you the right to use your money for your own benefit, to go on ski trips or to buy ice cream. The government can create a stable and well defended nation, where worry about the future can be banished, and where the human need for recreation can be satisfied. People can build museums, make art, film movies, and create video games; and the government gives them that right by shutting up and staying out of the way while the people do those things.
That freedom is happiness, and the government can’t give it to you, but it can give you the right to pursue it for yourself.
