Consciousness and Independence Declaration
A declaration of independence is the most powerful statement there is, the simplest of which is, "I am.' It is the most powerful instigation of consciousness and call for conscious action, it is not however a declaration of war or violence. Every declaration of independence develops consciousness, culturally and individually, such development is revolution as in cultural revolution or technological revolution. War diminishes and kills consciousness, culturally and individually.
The U.S.A. Declaration of Independence was a declaration of consciousness to impel consciousness. All protests, demonstrations, sit-ins and the Occupy Wall Street movement itself are rooted in the provocation of consciousness, a call out to the tolerant and obedient to question the problematic status quo.
The Declaration of Independence was a development of consciousness in an infinite number of ways. It has affected and compelled people so much throughout the world since, it is now impossible to calculate how much the Declaration of Independence actually did develop consciousness, not only in the U.S.A., but all around the world. It is possible to prove that the document was meant to impel development of consciousness, culturally and individually, through an omission from the original draft.
Certain representatives acted to decrease and diffuse the potential for the document to development consciousness for they benefitted from the status quo. Unless the denunciation of global, racial slavery was removed they refused to sign it. The renunciation stated, "He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither."
Historians note this omission made the Civil War inevitable as instigation of consciousness ensued. The philosopher Wilhelm Hegel would've predicted this outcome based on the ideas in his Master Slave Dialectic. Hegel proposes that, culturally and individually, people must proclaim independence and offer independence to others to become truly conscious.
Hegel describes this dissection of human mentality allegorically as both a cultural phenomenon as well as taking place within the individual. Hegel used the Hebrew rebellion against the Egyptian royals as well as the French rebellion against the French Royals to describe the cultural and individual development. Consciousness is initiated only when one says "I am' and only when one recognizes others as individuals as well. The U.S.A. Declaration of Independence was written to instigate cultural and individual development of consciousness. Hegel penned the Master Slave Dialectic before the Revolutionary War, but surely he would have seen it, as well as the rest of history, as a continuation of his theorization.
The Master Slave Dialectic is the same today as it has been all throughout history, it is a constant. To properly refuse, rebel and resist, to truly instigate consciousness, one must partake in civil action and more often civil inaction. This civil disobedience is in fact obedience to a higher calling. It is obedience to being human, obedience to the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, the foundational amendment, in attempts to instigate consciousness.
The First Amendment allows questioning anything, including the interpretation of God and the functions of government. The Five Freedoms of the First Amendment are for individuals. The First Amendment is a presentation of individual rights and more importantly it is a prescription of actions which can be used to keep our individual rights from institutions that would remove them or adopt them themselves. Today the First Amendment, the foundation of the Bill of Rights, has been supplanted to apply individual rights to institutions. This alone justifies and explains the Occupy Wall Street movement. This alone is justification to gather in the streets, like Socrates or like Jesus, and instigate consciousness to the fact that application of human rights to human machines is wrong.
Application of individual rights to institutions alone validates our redress of grievances, our instigation of consciousness. This alone justifies Occupy Wall Street. Institutions are not individuals. Any belief contrary is forgivable confusion or diabolical manipulation. And yet there are so many more circumstances which demand redress by conscious individuals, however, frequently the diverse problems of today can all be traced back to the placement of institutions above individuals and lending human rights to human machines.
