You Can't Have Both Equality And Liberty

“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” (Declaration of Independence, 1776).

All people are not actually created equal. Some are born into good families, some bad. Some are born into wealth, some aren’t. Some are born with more opportunities than others. It’s self-evident that all men are not created equal.

So why would the Declaration of Independence say the opposite?

It doesn’t. It says that all people are created equal in that they have certain unalienable Rights. And those Rights are not given to us by the government, they are given to us by our Creator.

This idea has been hijacked today. There are people who would have us believe it’s the government’s job to make sure all people are given equal outcomes. But this is absurd. It’s like saying the referee’s job is to make sure both teams have the same score at the end of the game.

We are so different that cookie-cutter equality isn’t possible. In fact, this understanding of equality doesn’t secure liberty—it destroys it.

You can’t have both equality and liberty.

What do you think?
Joseph