bprice@bmcg.UUCP (08/18/83)
There have been several articles in this discussion which have taken the
implicit assumption that 'Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' is a
list of alternatives, given in priority order of some kind. In context, it
does not appear to have this meaning. In current English, that meaning would
be denoted (more nearly) by using 'or' instead of 'and.'
Anyway...There are those of us, classed as Libertarians and/or Objectivists,
who recognize that the phrase "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'
denotes a single, indivisible whole: it is this whole that we are talking
about when we speak of 'life' or of 'liberty' or of 'freedom'. It is this
indivisible whole that we see being destroyed by the totalitarians among us,
whether they be 'whole-hog' ones, like the Soviet Empire, or merely minor-
league ones like Teddy Kennedy and his worshippers.
[My, my: aren't we getting nasty tonight.--]
Please don't get sidetracked by my side-comments above. It's getting too
late to be unemotional tonight.
--Bill Price {sdcrdcf,ucbvax!sdcsvax}!bmcg!bprice