Lockedown, 1776

Part of the paper I penned yesterday on DoD Business Transformation somehow ended up referencing the written word of our 3rd President of the United States, W&M alumnus Thomas Jefferson. Yeah, for a paper that centered on the Pentagon’s business practices, maybe I was waxing a tad poetic, citing one our Country’s fathers. But hey, I figure it’s a much more professional way of kicking off a research paper than typing “You’re an Intro.”

The sentence in question referred specifically to his unalienable rights – Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Yes, because of the Declaration of Independence, those three ideals will be forever linked, even more so than Pavarotti, Domingo, and the Other Guy. But what most US History high school teachers fail to mention is that Thomas Jefferson altered those three previously held ideas of a certain John Locke, who is now stuck in that bloody hatch typing in 4 8 15 16 23 42 every 108 min- oops. I meant a certain John Locke, who penned not one, but Two Treatises on Government.

(ba-dum-ching)

Contained within were Locke’s three natural rights: Life, Liberty, and Estate (aka the Pursuit of Property) Sound familiar? Now Jefferson was clearly a fan of Locke, agreeing with his ideas of social contract and tabula rasa, as he chose these rights to serve as the basis for American freedom. But he’s also no dummy, since history books do not look kindly upon copycats (Mad TV), he decided that he needed to trade out one of the three to make an Englishman’s ideas his own. Besides, the W&M Honor Council would have given him the boot for plagiarism.

(Although in colonial times, they may have actually given him a real boot.)

So picture this scenario. It’s June of 1776, and T-Jay is tired. He’s been at this thing since June 12, and now it’s almost the 27th, when Franklin, Adams, and Sherman are going to want to do a read-thru. Jefferson has been busy and unfocused. And it’s incredibly hot. He’s played enough garbage can basketball with rough drafts to try out for the 76ers (you know, when basketball gets invented and the Sixers form some 164 years later.) He loves the natural rights of John Locke, and is excited he came up with the word “unalienable.” But something’s gotta change.

It’s really that last one in the triad that he’s not set with. Property is nice, sure, and it’s cool that people should be able to freely acquire real estate without impediment. But this man was a visionary, and sees that the housing market in the colony of Virginia will be ridiculous come 2006, and his idea for a chief judicial court, Supreme in fact, shouldn’t have to deal with Virginians claiming high condo prices are not in line with what America was founded upon. Yep, the third one’s gotta go.

Out with property, and in with happiness. Is that a fair trade, I ask you? Did we need to put this in the Declaration of Independence, for fear that future democratic regimes might try and revoke the ability for its citizenry to be…happy? Don’t get me wrong – the flowery language is a nice touch for a document that may be one of the 10 most important pieces of literature in history. (that part about Prudence dictating the actions of Government – classy touch. Who is Prudence?) I just think that if you were going to replace property with a third unalienable right, you had a chance to make a truly great statement. What about Justice? Peace? Miniaturized American Flags for All?

Now fortunately for all future Americans, Jefferson was now a total “wait-to-the-last-minute” type. Otherwise, you know we would have ended up with a third unalienable right that was whatever popped into his head at the time of transcription. It would have sucked to live in a country that supports life, liberty, and the pursuit of some Fritos.