Jefferson’s Permanent Revolution

I have been on a Thomas Jefferson kick lately. Given this, I was really excited to read Peter Rock’s recent post “Jefferson, ideas, property, and the constitution”, which discusses the fallacious logic that ideas can be treated as property.

So, this got me thinking about Jefferson’s idea of permanent revolution, or that “every generation needs a new revolution.” A true mark of genius given the moment he was living. So last night I actually came across a scene in the HBO minseries John Adams (sorry Luke, I lied, I have forsaken Mad Men for John Adams -ironic?) which proffers Jefferson’s informal articulation of this idea, which is a fascinating one for me given the times we live in.

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One Response to Jefferson’s Permanent Revolution

  1. But nowadays, revolutions are “terrorism” and are stopped/prevented at all costs.

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