Defined by ideas held closely and truly.
This post is erratic. However, upon watching this, most importantly between the 25th and 29th minute, and then reading, or re-reading as the case may be, I feel you will better understand. That is, if you wish to understand.
The audience member’s question was that in people changing what the bill of rights says changes our actual rights. The speaker is saying that no, changing the text does not change rights, because rights transcend the text. He, like myself, and probably even you, have not grown with what the text implies; we have not embodied it. Because we are not fighting for those rights we do not define ourselves by those rights. Instead, we read the text, and then try to apply what we understand of it through our lens of reality — the reality of blockbuster movies, pathetic government, invasive advertising, TV and computer screens. Want for a lethal weapon could certainly seem unnecessary when the only bad guys are on your computer screen or tucked far away in another country.
The very concept of a right is just that — a concept. An idea. A notion. A belief. Your rights are gone the moment you cease to believe you have them.
It is here we get into the dirty details. If I believe I have a right to kill people, then I very well have that right. You, however, may disagree with that right. What happens after that I leave to you to decide.
In general the speaker is saying: here are ten rights that people who lived before us believed all people have at birth and forever more. I happen to agree with those ten rights, therefore I stand before you today telling you about them.
In a word, he’s marketing. He’s marketing the concept, idea, notion and belief that these ten rights are inalienable, that they are part of being alive.
What happens is that people agree or disagree with that belief. Those who agree will stand up and do what they feel is necessary to preserve those rights. Those who do not agree, or are uncertain, will let others act for them.
And that is where America stands. Uncertain, unaware, uncaring. It’s a cultural thing.
Compared to myself, and I bet compared to you who is reading this, our forefathers had difficult lives. They sailed across the sea. They fought battles. They argued amongst themselves on how to run a country. You and I sit in our chairs reading on the Internet, listening to radio on our stereos. If we’re thirsty we get up and grab a root beer.
Our mindset is probably very different than that of ANYONE who lived two-hundred-plus years ago. The idea that anyone can own and carry a weapon probably seems scary.
But have you ever asked why? And when you were provided with an answer, did you ask why again? And again and again, over and over until the person you were asking went mad?
I was recently called a rebel. I was offended. I’m not a rebel, I simply like asking questions. Questions that, I have good reason to believe, some would rather I not ask…