Like a fox, in equality (Part 1) By Takuan Seiyo

"Of all bedrock Americana, none has caused me more intellectual malaise and emotional bewilderment than the phrase, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'
What does it mean, 'All men are created equal'? It reads like one of those slogans where every single word is a lie, and the whole adds up to a larger lie. Why 'all men,' when Negro slaves and Indians were excluded? Why only 'men' but not women? Why 'created,' when people are unequal already at conception, let alone at birth? Why 'equal' at all, when 'men' are not equal, have never been, and, judging by the fate of past utopian egalitarian societies, can never be?
And how do you deal with the man who wrote these words: a slave-owning, natural aristocrat of good breeding and elitist predilections; a bon vivant connoisseur of fine wines, bespoke haberdashery and all that's exquisite ranging from china to book bindings? How do you place these words and this man in the context of his times, when most of his compatriots ate barley from earthenware pots and didn't know their Seneca from their snake oil peddler's pamphlet? "

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