that the Old Testament says there’s nothing new under the sun.

Burns: But let me just say, as you suggested, that the Old Testament says there’s nothing new under the sun. On July 4th, 1776, there was. Everybody up to that point had been under authoritarian rule, had been a subject. It was in the interests of their rulers that they be uneducated, that they be superstitious, that they be distracted by conspiracies. And then suddenly you had something new. And they were speaking not just about their present moment, but about all of us — the “unborn millions,” John Adams said — who would benefit from the success of this revolution.

And they were creating a new thing: citizens. And the pursuit of happiness for them, uniformly, was not the pursuit of objects in a marketplace of things, but lifelong learning in a marketplace of ideas. Because if you continued to educate yourself, you would become more virtuous, less susceptible to, as Adams said, ambition and avarice and greed. And that virtue would allow you to enjoy and be able to have the active idea of citizenship. This is brand new in the world. And this is one hell of a story.