The Declaration of Independence | JOHN ADAMS

Our Founding Fathers weren't just Enlightenment thinkers, but many of them were inventors, too.

Benjamin Franklin was by far the most famous in this regard, with his pioneering work in the world of electricity. Yet not everyone knows that Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair.

Vivek Ramaswamy brings this up every chance he gets, and rightly so.

As inventors, these men were accustomed to trying several variations on an idea before finding one which worked best.

They were trying to create a system of governance that ran on this kind of logic. That same type of rationality and common sense which applies in the mechanical world. Trial & Error. Where function reigns supreme, and everything else is secondary.

This the reason why they wrote our founding documents in such a way that the words legitimized themselves. So that the US Constitution didn't require Divine Right or any other religious claim in order to operate.

Because religious claims can be contested by other religious claims, whereas logical conclusions are not debatable.

Our Founding Fathers were definitely onto something. This separation of Church & State serves a second purpose of not dividing people over doctrine, too. So that free men could set aside their differences in a quest towards the common good, without getting distracted by minor disagreements.

There's a reason why the rest of the world became so infatuated with the American way. It's because it's the one that allows for the most flourishing. 🫡 🇺🇸

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This clip was taken from the HBO miniseries John Adams. The scene was quiet, but it had the potential to become epic. So I added some music and some subtitles, and - voila!