The Founders Speak (Sentence 2)
July 8, 2010 Leave a Comment
Here’s the other sentence from the Declaration of Independence, following the one presented on the Rational side here…
“But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.”
Hmm…sounds like an “ought” to me. Downright duty, they say.
And what’s the “ought”? Well, there’s “to throw off such Government” and there’s “provide new Guards for their future security.” But even Juvenal caught this paradox…
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes.
“But who is to guard the guards themselves?”
Get a grip; there is no paradox. Guards are hired to protect what their employers wish protected…maybe their property, their lives, their land, whatever. A good guard doesn’t need to be guarded; that’s why he’s a guard! If his employer wants him guarded, then he hires two guards, or whatever it takes.
Somehow when this gets institutionalized, the relationship gets twisted—it’s from the guard that the employer needs the most guarding. There are many reasons for this beyond the scope of this single posting, so suffice it to say that if an employer needs his guarding from his guard, then he did a very poor job of hiring that guard!
So poor, in fact, that it’s completely obvious that he should have no say at all in helping you choose your guards. Indeed, he may be so stupid that he himself should be guarded against!
Now how big of an idiot do you feel like, knowing that quoting two sentences from the Declaration of Independence might actually be considered by some people, to be treason? What the hell sort of guards did you hire?
Here’s the secret of egoism. You don’t want to feel like an idiot, and you especially don’t want to be an idiot. The secret is how much effort it takes to make this happen, which is <1% of the energy it takes to eat a hamburger. Just don’t do it, that’s all.
“There, done.”
