"MEN being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent. The only way whereby any one divests himself of his natural liberty, and puts on the bonds of civil society, is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties, and a greater security against any, that are not of it." (John Locke, The Second Treatise of Civil Government, Chapter VIII Section 95)
Concerning the right to self-preservation Locke wrote."The first power, viz. of doing whatsoever he thought for the preservation of himself, and the rest of mankind, he gives up to be regulated by laws made by the society, so far forth as the preservation of himself, and the rest of that society shall require; which laws of the society in many things confine the liberty he had by the law of nature."(The Second Treatise of Civil Government, Chapter IX Section 129) How much can the government regulate your right to preserve yourself? The answer is clear. Speaking of the power of the legislature, Locke wrote "Their power, in the utmost bounds of it, is limited to the public good of the society." (The Second Treatise of Civil Government, Chapter XI Section 135).
John Locke, <s>the intellectual father of America</s> widely known as the Father of Liberalism. Corrected for accuracy.
That didn't take long to confirm the obvious: The above quotes from John Locke are likely a bit too intellectually challenging for the average ET slob...you know, the slobs that take the time to vote on threads, but don't take the time to reason sensibly...or have any capacity to understand the intellectual foundation of the great minds of the framers and the enlightened ideas they drew upon to form our government.
Thomas Jefferson was to be the lead author of this document. Jefferson, and therefore our Declaration of Independence, was heavily influenced by British philosopher John Locke. You can see in the text of the document, and even in the list of reasons given to separate from Great Britain, Locke's words, ideas, and theories coming into play. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2197777/john_lockes_influence_on_the_american.html
No one has any chance should they cling to ignorance, dogmatism, stupdity, regressive thinking in a modern world, etc. If that fits you...you wear it well. Really, if people mouth the words, but have no genuine understanding of the ideas from which they arose, i.e. thinkers and philosophers like Locke, Hume, etc. who strongly influenced our independence from Britain...then they are not much different than the hordes of non intellectuals that lead Europe into the dark ages.
ET slob huh? Anything like this ET drunken slob? http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=189733