In his illuminating lectures, Roger Weir, tells the story of Jefferson’s critical importance to the founding of the United States.
"Again and again in his letters we find Jefferson say there is something new
under the sun. That is - this country coming into being is new under the sun."
Roger Weir’s talks dig past Jefferson’s basic data and dates and take the listener inside the mind of Jefferson. Weir sees Jefferson as a first in Human History: devoted to charting the steps that could lead to genuine Human Liberty, and common Human Freedom.
“Jefferson was a great believer that the natural course of man is going to open towards Liberty. They were the harbingers. They were the forerunners of a natural occurrence. The rational understanding of the full significance and meaning of human Liberty was an inevitable heritage that would belong to all men in the future.“
Jefferson had the belief that the founding of the United States was the true beginning of a New Age of Man. He saw the heritage of Human Liberty would be traced to the first 4,000,000 inhabitants of the new United States.
“It’s going to be a revolution of little people who come and take over the government because they say the government is ours to take. There has never been a country where there are four million people who are going to be free.”
Jefferson saw that these first American peoples would be freed from past subjugation. He forecast that all others who would live within the American boundaries would live free. This was his belief: that by careful shepherding, the Nation would yield nothing less than the establishment of a living model and a guiding light of hope for the Universal accomplishment of Human Freedom.
“And with these new customs and beliefs their integration is founded upon nature: The natural rights of man. They're not the rights that anyone gave. They're not the rights of custom or history. They are the rights of the natural structure of reality, which belong to human beings because they exist in an integrated natural way”
The quotations on this page are from lectures by Roger Weir that delve into the mind, spirit and wisdom of Thomas Jefferson. You can choose what to listen to here…