One who attacks cherished beliefs and traditional institutions as being based on error or superstition. Unfortunately, most of what you think you know about the United States is wrong. How many people here know that the Declaration of Independence was signed on 4th of July, 1776?
Everybody who raised their hand is wrong. The Declaration of Independence was authorized by the committee on the 4th of July. They took it out and had 28 copies made, and eventually it was signed by August 2nd.
And you can come up and read the document here that gives you that information. A small piece of trivia, perhaps it doesn't mean anything, but having the Declaration of Independence signed on the 4th of July is something that we've all just taken for nonsense. for truth and it's not and again most of what we have been taught about the United States we've been misled or just misinformed now the very first first topic is the difference between rights and privileges.
This topic is fundamental to everything else that we are going to learn. That's why I put it first. Everybody's just shown up this morning. The probability that you're going to fall asleep on me in the first 30 minutes is less than the probability that you'll be dozing at the end.
So if you are going to stay awake for any information, stay awake. for this. If you don't understand this, the rest of the class is basically hot air. A right.
is defined as a power, privilege, faculty, or demand inherent in one person and incident upon another, generally defined as powers of free action, something that you have the sovereign authority to do because there is no higher authority to get permission from. There's nobody to ask. You've heard the expression, the buck stops here. That means you're it. You make the final decisions.
That's what sovereignty is all about. You are endowed by your... with certain unalienable rights.
You don't have to ask. Now this is the exact opposite of a privilege. A privilege is defined as a particular and peculiar benefit or advantage enjoyed by a person, company, or class beyond the common advantages of other citizens.
A particular... right, advantage, exemption, power, franchise, or immunity held by a person or class not generally possessed by others. A temporary authority granted to you by someone of a higher authority. Let me give you an example. If I walk out of the back door of my house, and I walk out onto my land, I can walk back and forth, back and forth, back and forth across my land all day long.
Do I have to ask anybody for a favor? permission. No, it is my land. I own the property.
And because I own the property, I have a right to do anything I want with that property. And if I want to walk back and forth across it, I will. Now, let us presuppose that you have the property or the land right next door. Let us further presuppose that I want to walk to the store, which is just across your land.
Can I walk back and forth, back and forth? across your land anytime I want? No. I have to get permission. It is a privilege for me to walk across your land.
Why? Because I don't own your land. your land. You own your land.
You have complete and total authority to do whatever you want with your land. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, you may decide to let me walk across your land. We're next door neighbors, we're buddies, we go out socializing together. So there's no reason that I shouldn't walk across your land.
Yes, you may. On Thursday, you may wake up on the wrong side of the bed, you may have had a fight with your significant other, you to just be in a bad mood. You don't have to have a good reason. You just have to have a reason. And you can say, no, you may not walk across my land.
You have to walk around. So walking across your land is a privilege granted to me by someone of higher authority, the owner of the property, you. That privilege can be revoked at any time. Yes, you may. No, you may not.
Yes, you may. No, you may not. And I have...
no control over that. One of the fundamental problems in the United States is that the government has convinced us that we have certain privileges granted to us by the government. Excuse me, I have rights endowed to me by my Creator. Where does the government get power?
We the people grant the government privileges. The power comes from us and goes to government, not the other way around. Now, there are some important sub-layer concepts with rights. One of which is that rights are derived from property. In my example, I can walk back and forth across my property because it's my property.
I can do anything I want if I own it. So anytime you get into a dispute as to who's got the right to do this, that, or the other thing, the real question that should be asked is, who owns the property? If you can identify the owner of the property, the question answers itself.
The owner of the property can do whatever they want. Now, we frequently hear the phrase, constitutional rights. I hate that phrase.
Stop using that phrase. Do not say constitutional rights. The reason that I hate that phrase is because constitutional rights sounds like the Constitution grants us rights.
If you are granted something, is it a right or a privilege? It's a privilege. It is impossible to grant someone a right.
It's a contradiction in terms. It's like a round square. It's the opposite.
Like jumbo shrimp, you just cannot have a right which is granted. Now, there is a second concept that... Let me continue on this property. You have a right to life.
Where does that right to life come from? Well, property. Who owns your body? I hope it's you. What are you if someone else owns your body?
You're a slave. So, basically, if you are not a slave, then you own your own body. Can you do whatever you want with your body? Yes. Now, is smoking good for you?
No, that's pretty much, you know, okay. But if you want to put a cigarette in your mouth and smoke it, it's your body. Do what you want. You know, it's not up to you.
to me to tell you what to do with your property. I mean, I don't recommend it, you know, but you're the property owner. Now, John Adams said, the moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.
The law of God is not Law of property is the most important law. Period. Even a two-year-old understands property.
Mine. Mine. That's mine.
They don't understand it well, but they do understand that owning property is important. And as we get older, somehow we lose sight of that fact. We need to be just a little bit more like a two-year-old and go, that's mine! And we have to be willing to defend that property.