Deflection

This phrase, All Men are Created Equal, was written by Thomas Jefferson in the Deceleration of Independence. Although there are those that say that they do not understand it, it is also out dated. I find this phrase to be straight forward, but it is not being used as Jefferson intended for it to be used today. Therefore, in today’s society, this phrase is deflected out of shape to the point that it could become permanently yielded. I will in-depth try to explain it in this essay and a few to follow, so I will start with it being out dated with the word: “men.”

In today’s environment, Jefferson would have wrote that “All Individuals are Created Equal.” To understand the terminology of Jefferson’s day, it requires taking a closer look at the society that they were living. The country was under the reign of King George III over Great Britain with an aristocracy government. So, here in the North America, there was plantation and aristocratic families. As with a king being the head of the land, men were the had of plantations. Although many people may feel that this was a time oppression for people, this may not have been the case with every king, or queen, and every plantation own making term unrealistic.

Kings and plantation owners were responsible for people and either government operations or working the land. For them to be successful, they had to successfully operate empires and this was no small challenges since we can read about the unsuccessful kingdom reigns in England over the years. So, what does it take to have a successful empire? Simple question, but a little complicated to answer.

It seem like the world runs better when there is a two tier system, as can be seen in a Kingdom, military, family, or an aristocracy. In the military, it is the executive officer that makes the commanding officer. The executive officer does all of the work, especially the paperwork, and gets little to no credit. This can easily be seen in the movie 12 O’Clock High with Actor Dean Jagger playing executive office Major Stovell. Without excellent executive offices like Major Stovell, commanding officers like General Savage, played played by Gregory Peck, would never stand a change. Most executive officers like Major Stovel are not interested in recognition, since they do not want the limelight of a commanding officer. But, for the executive officer Dwight D. Eisenhower, he became the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, and did not keep himself out of the limelight.

My grandmother once told me that it is the woman that makes the man. Just as in a family, kingdom, or plantation, without a good wife the man does not stand a change of succeeding. This is so clearly being played out in United Kingdom with Prince William and Princess Kate. She has taken as strong supportive roll with Prince William and they both just radiates with a totally positive environment of care, concern, and togetherness, and they are an unstoppable force for the future needs of the UK and the world.

But a successful aristocracy does not stop with a great wife, but also takes great managers. A plantation owner need a good farm manager to succeed, and keep the plantation solvent. When it can to the staff, he had to be firm and get the work completed on time. If the manager was oppressive, then there would be deceit with the workers and the work would not be completed on time. The manager would also have to have a good back ground in agriculture to keep the plantation going. In the military, this would be the same for the enlisted staff.

The patriarch also has to use discretion when dealing with their wives and managers. If Prince William was too hard on Princess Kate, we would see the unstoppable force in the news every day. If a commanding officer was too hard on his sergeant, then all of the planes under his command would not be ready for fly with needed on the battlefield. The patriarch has to knowledge to work with his people.

So, when Jefferson stated “man,” he was not specifically stating the head of the aristocracy, but everyone, since everyone in an aristocracy had a function. Like the military, the executive office has the most important job to keep it functioning, just as a wife or the supporting staff for a kingdom. When a king was too young to rule from the throne, the support staff operated the kingdom.

It should be stated that up to this point in this essay the aristocracy government has look good, but it has server drawbacks. The biggest one is that there are no checks and balances. A King, a Queen, and/or an aristocrat could, an often did, rule with an iron fist. Since King Henry VIII’s father stated that he had to have a son to rule the next generation, King Henry made many changes in England that can be felt today. With the Catholic Church not allowing Henry to divorce in first wife, since she would not give birth to a male son, Henry through the Catholic Church out of England. And, since the Catholics took care of the poor, a welfare system has to be formed to care for the poor that is still in use today. Therefore, after George Washington was leaving government and the people wanted him to be a king, he simply stated that there would never be kings in the United States.

Today, there are no aristocracies in the United States, so the term has to be out dated. In a capitalist government, success is based on the individual. Therefore, if Thomas Jefferson would have wrote in phase today, it would be “all individuals are created equal.” This can become evident by studying Jefferson.

To write the Deceleration of Independence, Jefferson spent time studying John Locke, an English philosopher. Jefferson used Locke’s phrase “the pursuit of life, liberty, property.” But, during the Deceleration of Independence convention, they had him change it to “the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness,” with the word happiness becoming an ambitious word. In other words, there is no was to quantify the word happiness. Also, as written in his will, all black slaves were to be released. If Thomas Jefferson did not believe that, in today’s terms, people are individuals, he would have never used the word “property” in the first draft of the Deceleration of Independence or wrote that his slaves were to be released.

If the citizens of the United States understood that the phase in the Deceleration of Independence should read, “all individuals are created equal.” Then the term has never deflected. But, for those that feel that the word means only white males, the the term has deflect and yielded, and there is no way to straighten out the term with the word, “individuals.”