The Side Effects of Endorphins

Some say, this may be the best sentence ever written, but I certainly have my doubts.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”

In the Declaration of Independence, “self-evident” means that certain truths—specifically that all men are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights—are obvious, unquestionable, and require no further proof or argument. 

Likewise, our founding fathers addressed the concept of equality. “All men are created equal.” Like dignity, there is no action that needs to be taken to earn equality. The phrase is said as a fact that as humans, we are all created equal. Even as I write this, my grammar checking software, tries to correct the sentence all men are created equal.

There are some debt debates, even that all men are created equal. Our founding fathers certainly owned slaves. Thomas Jefferson tried to eliminate language tied to religion while, John Adams did the opposite.

Not only are all men created equal, but they are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of “endow” is “to provide with something freely or naturally.” In other words, like dignity, there is nothing that any individual must do to receive the certain rights that follow. They are all freely provided by God.  

Unfortunately, I need to introduce the  term Skyboxifcation.

The phrase “skyboxification refers to the process of separating certain groups of people into elite classes that’s elevating their experience and access to privilege. Or we just call it privilege

It used to be that we all went to the ball game together. However, within a capitalistic system, that’s no longer the case. Those with money and resources can sit where they want at a ballpark and on airplanes. Those with resources have access to powerful lawyers for laws that no longer apply to them. Those who write the law of the land are those endowed with money and power. So now we are no longer created equal. No those in power did not work hard harder to get there. Most were born into power and wealth. Certainly there are success stories.

But that is what is meant by the later part of theoretically the greatest sentence ever written. That among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” and we limit the pursuit of happiness to those with power and money and the proper race and gender.

I’m not one wanting to take the constitution and Bill of Rights literally. It is a flawed document needing to be re-examined. I see little chance in that as those in power want to stay in power. Why do you think narcissists make up a great deal of those who are chief executive officers in major corporations. It takes an enormous amount of lack of empathy. I know that sounds like multiplying by zero and it kind of is. As we have narcissists leading our country, with truly little empathy for the good of the the general citizenry . It is said, WE the people not ME despite the people.

It may not be the end of the world as we know it. It may or may not be the end of capitalism as we know it. I still plan to live my life with empathy. And I feel fine. However, I worry about WE  the people.

This is the opinion of K Mark Schofer -by all means this is not a final product but rather a process I’m working through after reading theoretically the greatest sentence I’ve ever written.