Intellectual history is generally the study of good ideas or what we currently think are good ideas, but it is the bad ideas that have the most impact. The use of slave labor in the New World, for example, seemed like a good idea at the time but has proven to be a terrible burden on us. If the slavers knew that their descendants would be tormented by the consequences of slavery, would they still have done it?
I heard Jefferson originally wrote “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of property”. Perhaps instead of writing “all men are created equal”, they should have written, “all men deserve the equal application of the law“.
Would the plantation owners who bought thousands of slaves have shied away from it if they knew the future consequences? My guess is no...Greed doesn't care about the future...
I heard Jefferson originally wrote “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of property”. Perhaps instead of writing “all men are created equal”, they should have written, “all men deserve the equal application of the law“.
Would the plantation owners who bought thousands of slaves have shied away from it if they knew the future consequences? My guess is no...Greed doesn't care about the future...
I find the Christian scapegoat on equality lacking. Christendom has linearly declined in the west.
Perhaps Christianity in modernity has become a perverse vehicle for equality but it still doesn’t explain the contradiction.
This is like the misnomer that Christians were pacifists in the Roman Empire because they weren’t allowed to join the Military.
There is a podcast called the stone choir that deals with the issues you talk about. Would be interesting for y’all to get together.
Thanks for the show ZMAN. Big fan.