Yes.  Thanks for the correction.  Holton.  I get it confused with Houlton, ME, 
which, by the way, is right next to Old Town, Me.  

Look.  Rights are things we give one another by incurring obligations.   The 
document should have  read: "All people are created equal and they are endowed 
by their association with certain unalienable obligations, basically, not to 
get in one another's way more than is absolutely necessary and to help one 
another when the chips are down.  "  It's funny because it's a declaration of 
independence; it never occurred to them that they had to write a declaration of 
association.   Hence the constitution, six years later.  

Nick 



Nick Thompson
thompnicks...@gmail.com
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ?>$
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2021 12:08 PM
To: friam@redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Revising the American Revolution

Ugh. Sorry for this: Holton, not Houlton: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Holton

And the semantic slippery slope from moral equivalent to inalienable rights is 
just nonsense, trickery that should never be forgiven. Now, where I disagree 
with Dave is that it might be possible to establish some intrinsic properties 
of living systems (e.g. negentropy) that do imply intrinsic rights. So the 
moral equivalence lies somewhere in the technical definition (perhaps via 
integrated information theory or somesuch). But the extension to "rights" would 
then be "Every negentropic kernel has the *right* to *try* to maintain/increase 
order within -- and thereby increase disorder without." I.e. a "right to life". 
But even if they fail in their execution, they were still negentropic for at 
least a little while. And they are equal in that temporally and spatially 
scoped technical sense.


On 10/26/21 10:22 AM, thompnicks...@gmail.com wrote:
> I agree with Houlton that “All men are created equal AND they are endowed by 
> their Creator with certain unalienable rights …”  is a pretty good place to 
> start.  You will recall that I even think this leads in theory to a prejudice 
> against inheritance and in practice to taxing the crap out of rich people, in 
> which category I count most of us.
> 
>  
> 
> With respect to Dave’s “Boo God” comment, I of course agree.  My only 
> acquaintance with god was as something that came into being when my father 
> hit his thumb with a hammer.  But it is fascinating to read the above words 
> in context.  See 
> https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript 
> <https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript>

-- 
"Better to be slapped with the truth than kissed with a lie."
☤>$ uǝlƃ


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