Alberto Monteiro wrote:
> I've just watched on Fox an Episode of _Lone Gunmen_
> where they liberate an intelligent chimp who was held
> in captivity by the g*vernment.
>
> So:
>
>> "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.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among
>>Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."
>>
>>
> And JDG wrote:
>
>>If you want Western Civilization in a nutshell, I don't know that you can
>>do much better than that.
>>
>>
> Ok, but maybe we _can_ do better than that. I don't see Western Civ
> as a discontinuity from a tradition that began with the _Lex Dodecadecem
> Tabularum_ [or some other pompous expression in Latin], or earlier
> with the Pentateuch or the Code of Hammurabi. Namely: that there are
> artificial laws to regulate society.
>
> And the Declaration of Independence is quite humanicist [:-)], denying
> [by not mentioning] the rights of non-human sentient beings, or the
> right of species, etc.
Not to mention that we are a good ways from providing such
self evident truths to all Americans, let alone all of humanity.
--
Doug
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.zo.com/~brighto
