Hello everybody, this is James Lindsay, you're listening to New Discourses Bullets where

I give a bullet point summary of one topic relevant to us defeating Vogue Marxism.

And in this episode, I'm going to continue from where I left off in a previous episode

and talk more about the preface or preamble to the declaration of independence.

I want to stick with the curious phrasing at the beginning.

There are two particular parts in the very opening that kind of stick out to people.

In the previous episode that I was referring to, I talked about the concept of where Jefferson

says that we take these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and we talked

about what is meant in the American context by being created equal, equal political authority.

Equal access to very little political authority, and nothing you can't demonstrate that you

should have.

But today I want to go further.

He says, in addition, what else is a truth that is self-evident?

It's not just that we are created equal by the laws of nature and nature's God.

It's in fact that we are endowed by our Creator, the laws of nature and nature's God, with

certain inalienable rights.

And among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Now the pursuit of happiness is perhaps the most mysterious phrase in the Declaration

of Independence.

And I mean, perhaps Jefferson was very segacious and wise in choosing this word or phrase

as opposed to the origin story of it.

I'm not utterly convinced of it because of its kind of diffuse nature and ambiguity.

...