The Two Fundamental Laws of Life

"Liberty is the source of prosperity"

-Richard Maybury

A model is the way we construct our internal understanding of how the world works.  It is our belief system that grounds our spiritual center.  It provides us with a sort of "Universal Truth" that we live by, and expect others to live by as well.

We are fortunate.  We grew up in America.  Tens of millions of our ancestors left dozens of countries to come to America as individuals and families, one-by-one.  In many cases, they landed with nothing more than the shirt on their back and, if they were lucky, a few gold coins in their pockets.

Why did they come?  What were they seeking?

They came in search of liberty and personal freedom.  They came in search of religious freedom.  They came in search of fortune and the right to own property.  They came in search of happiness.  They came with the hope and the dream that if not for themselves immediately, than at least for their children, there would be a better life, a life free from corruption and kings, wars and religious persecution.  Perhaps a life to start their own business, or perhaps a life to just be left alone.

Our American model of universal truth is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, which states up front: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness".  This is a revolutionary document.  Never before were such words so boldly written.

Our Founding Fathers believed that one's happiness was the highest right that we could aspire to obtain.

Over the centuries many models from various philosophers proposed to explain how "the world works".  Many were written for kings and dictators to justify their raw power over their subjects.  Some were written by Utopian theorists who dreamed of imaginary worlds where real people don't live.

As with many theories, most models proved false for several reasons:

1) they violate the underlying "laws of nature"; that is they are contrary to how things actually work or are physically programmed to work, either by the laws of physics or our DNA coding, and

2) they failed when put to into "real world" practice and tested.

But a few survived because of their universal truth.  The United States uses the two fundamental principles of the old British common law as the legal model for our Constitution.

These are:

1. Do all that you have agreed to do.
2. Do not encroach upon another person of their property.

The first principle is the basis of contract law.  The second is the basis of tort law and some criminal law.

These are the two laws taught by most religions and philosophies, which is why they were the basis of common law - the law common to all.  They form the basis of the American model of universal truth.  When these two fundamental laws are not widely obeyed, the only options are tyranny or chaos because oaths can't be trusted, and boundaries aren't respected.

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