Samuel Adams Addresses Natural Rights

It is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men, at the entering into society, to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defence of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty, and Property. If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.

~Samuel Adams, excerpted from The Rights of the Colonists, November 20, 1772

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The Common Sense of Thomas Paine on Government

“Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries By A Government, which we might expect in a country Without Government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise.”

Sociopolitical Outcast, or Subscriber to an Emergent Philosophy?

Alan Sexton/Green Mountain Scribes    

My positions on issues are often chastised and praised in equal measure by people holding various extreme left and right views. I sometimes wonder whether my sociopolitical philosophy makes me a societal and political outcast., or perhaps a subscriber to an emergent, mainstream sociopolitical philosophy.

Happy Independence Day

The Declaration of Independence

     Hey everyone, my wishes to all for a safe and enjoyable Independence Day!