WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.600 Usually, when we talk about foundational legal 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:06.599 concepts, there's this expectation of, like, 00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:09.099 total rigidity. Oh, yeah. We want them to be 00:00:09.099 --> 00:00:11.599 permanent. Right. We kind of imagine pouring 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:14.500 concrete. You lay the foundation of a nation, 00:00:14.699 --> 00:00:16.620 the concrete sets, and you just point to it and 00:00:16.620 --> 00:00:18.640 say, you know, there it is. Those are the rules 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:21.120 forever. Yeah. You sign the massive historical 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:24.719 document. The ink dries. and it's locked away 00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:27.019 in some climate -controlled vault, right? Exactly. 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:30.539 In the National Archives somewhere. I mean, that 00:00:30.539 --> 00:00:35.100 is entirely by design. We are wired to want our 00:00:35.100 --> 00:00:38.320 core rights to be visible and strictly categorized, 00:00:38.600 --> 00:00:40.859 anchored in stone, basically. Because ambiguity 00:00:40.859 --> 00:00:44.079 is scary. Ambiguity in human rights is terrifying. 00:00:44.299 --> 00:00:46.439 So yeah, we look for permanence. But then if 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.539 you actually track how the language of those 00:00:48.539 --> 00:00:51.119 rights travels through time, suddenly that concrete 00:00:51.119 --> 00:00:54.259 foundation starts looking, well, a lot more like 00:00:54.259 --> 00:00:56.439 wet clay. It really does. It's constantly shape 00:00:56.439 --> 00:00:57.939 -shifting. And that's exactly what we're getting 00:00:57.939 --> 00:01:00.119 into today. Welcome to the deep dive, by the 00:01:00.119 --> 00:01:02.039 way. Our source material for this deep dive is 00:01:02.039 --> 00:01:06.250 not a dense academic paper. No, not at all. It's 00:01:06.250 --> 00:01:09.769 not a 500 page historical biography either. We 00:01:09.769 --> 00:01:12.769 are actually doing a deep dive into a single 00:01:12.769 --> 00:01:15.989 Wikipedia disambiguation page. Which is such 00:01:15.989 --> 00:01:18.390 a unique starting point. Right. Specifically, 00:01:18.390 --> 00:01:20.730 we're looking at the page for the exact term, 00:01:21.030 --> 00:01:23.950 Bill of Rights. Which, you know, on the surface, 00:01:23.989 --> 00:01:25.450 sounds like we're just reading a table of contents. 00:01:25.450 --> 00:01:28.530 Yeah. But a disambiguation page is essentially 00:01:28.530 --> 00:01:33.069 a map of linguistic evolution. Yeah. every single 00:01:33.069 --> 00:01:36.250 time human society needed to borrow this specific 00:01:36.250 --> 00:01:38.989 phrase over the last several centuries. And our 00:01:38.989 --> 00:01:41.590 mission today is to explore exactly how that 00:01:41.590 --> 00:01:45.090 single powerful phrase mutated, because the source 00:01:45.090 --> 00:01:47.430 gives us this incredibly succinct foundational 00:01:47.430 --> 00:01:49.750 definition right at the top. The base definition, 00:01:49.810 --> 00:01:51.689 yeah. It says a Bill of Rights is simply, quote, 00:01:52.030 --> 00:01:54.109 a declaration of the rights that a citizenry 00:01:54.109 --> 00:01:56.390 have. Very creative forward. But by the time 00:01:56.390 --> 00:01:58.629 we finish this deep dive, you are going to see 00:01:58.629 --> 00:02:01.469 how a concept that started out dealing with the 00:02:01.469 --> 00:02:04.790 absolute power of kings eventually trickled all 00:02:04.790 --> 00:02:07.250 the way down to protect comic book artists. And 00:02:07.250 --> 00:02:10.009 library patrons. And people paying off their 00:02:10.009 --> 00:02:12.629 credit cards. It's wild. OK, let's unpack this. 00:02:12.729 --> 00:02:14.530 We're going to start at the chronological beginning 00:02:14.530 --> 00:02:19.889 of this Wikipedia list, looking at the base operating 00:02:19.889 --> 00:02:22.550 system of entire nations. The early days. Yeah, 00:02:22.650 --> 00:02:27.550 we are in 1689. and we see two very distinct 00:02:27.550 --> 00:02:30.370 entries right out of the gate for 1689. First, 00:02:30.729 --> 00:02:33.949 there's the Declaration of Right, 1689. The source 00:02:33.949 --> 00:02:37.030 notes, this was actually a document given as 00:02:37.030 --> 00:02:39.949 a speech, declaring the rights all citizens of 00:02:39.949 --> 00:02:42.909 England should have. Wait, a speech? Yeah, literally 00:02:42.909 --> 00:02:45.500 spoken. And right below it on the list is the 00:02:45.500 --> 00:02:48.379 Bill of Rights 1689, which was actually passed 00:02:48.379 --> 00:02:50.520 by the Parliament of England. I always just assume 00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:53.139 these old documents were like drafted by a committee 00:02:53.139 --> 00:02:56.120 in some dusty room and signed. But that transition 00:02:56.120 --> 00:02:59.599 from a speech to a law is wild. It's a huge shift. 00:02:59.740 --> 00:03:02.060 You are essentially speaking truth to power, 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:04.900 literally reading a list of demands out loud 00:03:04.900 --> 00:03:06.900 to the incoming monarchs, William and Mary, and 00:03:06.900 --> 00:03:08.780 just saying, here is what we should have. And 00:03:08.780 --> 00:03:10.639 then the parliament actually has to do the heavy 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:13.180 lifting of passing it into law. Right, and the 00:03:13.180 --> 00:03:16.039 source actually notes this 1689 bill was amended 00:03:16.039 --> 00:03:18.099 several times, so it was never a one -and -done 00:03:18.099 --> 00:03:20.639 deal. What's fascinating here is the underlying 00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:23.780 mechanism. Prior to these documents, the prevailing 00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:26.219 assumption in many parts of the world was that 00:03:26.219 --> 00:03:28.939 rights were, well, granted by a monarch. Like 00:03:28.939 --> 00:03:31.520 a gift. Exactly, privileges that could just be 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:34.319 revoked whenever. By passing a statutory bill 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:36.460 of rights, the English parliament established 00:03:36.460 --> 00:03:39.909 the concept that a citizenry inherently possesses 00:03:39.909 --> 00:03:42.110 rights. Oh, okay, I see. The document doesn't 00:03:42.110 --> 00:03:44.090 give you the rights, it forces the government 00:03:44.090 --> 00:03:46.509 to document them to protect you from the government 00:03:46.509 --> 00:03:48.569 itself. You're drawing a box around the king. 00:03:48.689 --> 00:03:51.030 But precisely. But - I have to push back a little 00:03:51.030 --> 00:03:53.050 on the timeline here, because we have this English 00:03:53.050 --> 00:03:56.349 document in 1689, but then the Wikipedia list 00:03:56.349 --> 00:03:58.770 jumps forward an entire century before we hit 00:03:58.770 --> 00:04:02.090 the massive boom in the late 18th century. The 00:04:02.090 --> 00:04:04.789 Revolutionary era. Right. We get the United States 00:04:04.789 --> 00:04:07.310 Bill of Rights, which was written in 1789 and 00:04:07.310 --> 00:04:10.889 ratified in 1791. And in that exact same year, 00:04:10.949 --> 00:04:14.210 1789, France drops the Declaration of the Rights 00:04:14.210 --> 00:04:17.149 of Man and of the Citizen. A very busy year for 00:04:17.149 --> 00:04:21.480 human rights. Seriously. So was this just a philosophical 00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:24.860 trend that finally caught on, or was there a 00:04:24.860 --> 00:04:28.660 specific catalyst that made massive populations 00:04:28.660 --> 00:04:31.439 suddenly demand these written lists? The catalyst 00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:33.920 was really the scale of the revolutions. I mean, 00:04:34.019 --> 00:04:36.920 in 1689, England was basically just rearranging 00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:39.120 its monarchy. Swapping out the management. Exactly. 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:42.180 But in 1789, the US and France were starting 00:04:42.180 --> 00:04:44.699 from scratch. When you're booting up America 00:04:44.699 --> 00:04:48.160 or completely rebooting France, you lack those 00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:50.319 centuries of common law and tradition that held 00:04:50.319 --> 00:04:53.180 English society together. Ah, so you need new 00:04:53.180 --> 00:04:55.860 rules. You need a universal sweeping contract. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:57.939 It's kind of the societal equivalent of the terms 00:04:57.939 --> 00:05:00.000 and conditions you have to click agree to when 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:01.819 you turn on a new smartphone. Oh, that's a great 00:05:01.819 --> 00:05:04.839 way to look at it. The language had to be absolute 00:05:04.839 --> 00:05:07.839 like the rights of man. to lay the bedrock for 00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:10.259 an entirely new society. Which works beautifully, 00:05:10.339 --> 00:05:12.740 right, until the society outgrows the bedrock. 00:05:12.779 --> 00:05:15.439 Which always happens. Always. And that structural 00:05:15.439 --> 00:05:18.579 limitation forces the next major leap in our 00:05:18.579 --> 00:05:21.100 source list. We move out of the 18th century, 00:05:21.319 --> 00:05:23.779 and the list skips past the 19th century entirely, 00:05:24.019 --> 00:05:26.439 landing squarely in the mid -20th century. A 00:05:26.439 --> 00:05:28.639 huge gap, yeah. And here's where it gets really 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:31.959 interesting. In 1944, United States President 00:05:31.959 --> 00:05:34.360 Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes something called 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:37.680 the Second Bill of Rights. which is a profoundly 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:40.660 strategic choice of words. He's taking a 150 00:05:40.660 --> 00:05:43.879 -year -old sacred concept and applying it to 00:05:43.879 --> 00:05:46.779 modern economics. The rhetorical genius of calling 00:05:46.779 --> 00:05:49.959 it a second Bill of Rights is just stunning to 00:05:49.959 --> 00:05:52.319 me. Oh, it's brilliant marketing. He is intentionally 00:05:52.319 --> 00:05:55.000 borrowing the immense historical weight of the 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:58.339 original 1789 document. He isn't just saying, 00:05:58.519 --> 00:06:00.800 hey, I have some new policy ideas about jobs 00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:03.149 and housing. No, he's elevating it. He's telling 00:06:03.149 --> 00:06:06.389 the public, economic security is just as fundamental 00:06:06.389 --> 00:06:09.089 to your existence as freedom of speech or religion. 00:06:09.470 --> 00:06:11.670 Because he needed that branding. Right. What 00:06:11.670 --> 00:06:14.730 he was proposing was a massive expansion of the 00:06:14.730 --> 00:06:16.769 government's role in daily life. Right. He needed 00:06:16.769 --> 00:06:19.089 the heavy artillery. And if we connect this to 00:06:19.089 --> 00:06:21.889 the bigger picture, 1944 is really the turning 00:06:21.889 --> 00:06:25.110 point of the modern era. World War II fundamentally 00:06:25.110 --> 00:06:27.769 shattered the illusion that 18th century national 00:06:27.769 --> 00:06:30.069 frameworks were enough to protect human beings. 00:06:30.110 --> 00:06:32.850 Because they clearly weren't. Right. A single 00:06:32.850 --> 00:06:35.250 nation's Bill of Rights doesn't help you at all 00:06:35.250 --> 00:06:38.509 if your nation is conquered or if your own government 00:06:38.509 --> 00:06:40.689 turns against you. Yeah, that's a terrifying 00:06:40.689 --> 00:06:43.110 realization. And you see that realization reflected 00:06:43.110 --> 00:06:45.930 in the very next entries on our list. The definition 00:06:45.930 --> 00:06:49.189 of citizenry expands globally. The United Nations 00:06:49.189 --> 00:06:52.410 steps in. In 1948, we get the UN's Universal 00:06:52.410 --> 00:06:54.949 Declaration of Human Rights. And then decades 00:06:54.949 --> 00:06:58.290 later, in 1976, the International Bill of Human 00:06:58.290 --> 00:07:00.730 Rights. It's a massive shift in scope. You aren't 00:07:00.730 --> 00:07:04.529 just a citizen of England or France or the US 00:07:04.529 --> 00:07:07.230 anymore. You are a citizen of the globe. And 00:07:07.230 --> 00:07:10.329 notice how the mechanism changes here. The UN 00:07:10.329 --> 00:07:12.870 documents are aspirational. They set a global 00:07:12.870 --> 00:07:15.480 moral standard. They can't exactly send a U .N. 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:18.100 police force to your house to enforce it. Exactly. 00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:20.759 But that pressure trickles back down to individual 00:07:20.759 --> 00:07:23.360 nations, forcing them to realize their old operating 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:26.319 systems need a massive software update. OK, I 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:28.639 see where this is going. The Wikipedia page highlights 00:07:28.639 --> 00:07:30.779 Canada as a prime example of this evolution. 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:33.220 They have two separate entries. First, an act 00:07:33.220 --> 00:07:35.699 of the Canadian Parliament in 1960 called the 00:07:35.699 --> 00:07:38.240 Canadian Bill of Rights. But wait, an act of 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:40.459 parliament is just a regular law, right? Like 00:07:40.459 --> 00:07:42.459 a later government could just come along and 00:07:42.459 --> 00:07:44.819 vote to repeal it if they wanted to. Precisely. 00:07:44.920 --> 00:07:46.660 It lacked the permanence we talked about earlier. 00:07:46.839 --> 00:07:50.839 The concrete wasn't set. Ah, right. So in 1982, 00:07:51.500 --> 00:07:53.810 Canada took a much bigger step. they embedded 00:07:53.810 --> 00:07:56.889 the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms directly 00:07:56.889 --> 00:07:59.629 into the Canadian Constitution. Wow. They moved 00:07:59.629 --> 00:08:02.129 the rules from a piece of paper on the desk to 00:08:02.129 --> 00:08:04.269 the load -bearing beams of the house itself. 00:08:04.430 --> 00:08:06.889 They took the wet clay and finally poured the 00:08:06.889 --> 00:08:09.529 concrete. Exactly. And the list shows they aren't 00:08:09.529 --> 00:08:11.829 the only ones doing this modern retrofitting. 00:08:12.220 --> 00:08:15.399 We see the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. 00:08:16.120 --> 00:08:18.360 We see the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance 00:08:18.360 --> 00:08:21.660 enacted in 1991. It was a very popular trend 00:08:21.660 --> 00:08:24.360 in the late 20th century. The source even mentions 00:08:24.360 --> 00:08:26.819 a proposed Bill of Rights bill in the United 00:08:26.819 --> 00:08:29.819 Kingdom, which tells me nations are still actively 00:08:29.819 --> 00:08:32.120 debating how to structure this architecture today. 00:08:32.500 --> 00:08:35.779 It really proves the 18th century tool listing 00:08:35.779 --> 00:08:39.200 out rights to constrain power is incredibly durable. 00:08:39.549 --> 00:08:43.289 I mean, a 1789 document couldn't possibly anticipate 00:08:43.289 --> 00:08:46.929 the realities of a 1990s globalized world, but 00:08:46.929 --> 00:08:49.710 the format survived. But format survival only 00:08:49.710 --> 00:08:52.649 goes so far when the original documents had massive 00:08:52.649 --> 00:08:55.269 blind spots. Huge blind spots. Once the macro 00:08:55.269 --> 00:08:57.389 level nations had their foundational rights locked 00:08:57.389 --> 00:09:01.210 in, a glaring new problem emerged. Like, what 00:09:01.210 --> 00:09:03.690 happens when standard national rights simply 00:09:03.690 --> 00:09:07.169 fail to protect specific vulnerable groups? And 00:09:07.169 --> 00:09:10.169 that failure shifts our Wikipedia outline entirely. 00:09:10.269 --> 00:09:13.049 It really does. We move away from nations and 00:09:13.049 --> 00:09:15.470 the globe, and we look at the see also section 00:09:15.470 --> 00:09:18.129 of the page. The term Bill of Rights gets adopted 00:09:18.129 --> 00:09:20.590 by highly specific demographics. We enter the 00:09:20.590 --> 00:09:22.789 era of specialization. I'm going to read a few 00:09:22.789 --> 00:09:24.210 of these entries, and I just want you to think 00:09:24.210 --> 00:09:25.730 about how different they are from the French 00:09:25.730 --> 00:09:28.090 Revolution. OK. We have the homeless Bill of 00:09:28.090 --> 00:09:31.009 Rights. The Veterans Bill of Rights, which the 00:09:31.009 --> 00:09:32.850 source notes is better known as the GI Bill, 00:09:33.190 --> 00:09:35.629 we have a homosexual Bill of Rights drafted by 00:09:35.629 --> 00:09:38.090 the North American Conference of Homophile Organizations. 00:09:38.649 --> 00:09:41.710 There is a law enforcement officer's Bill of 00:09:41.710 --> 00:09:44.610 Rights, an Islamic Bill of Rights for women in 00:09:44.610 --> 00:09:47.070 the mosque, and the Sexual Assault Survivors 00:09:47.070 --> 00:09:49.149 Bill of Rights, which is contained in a larger 00:09:49.149 --> 00:09:51.590 rights act. That is just a staggering cross -section 00:09:51.590 --> 00:09:55.250 of society. You have government employees, marginalized 00:09:55.250 --> 00:09:57.529 communities, religious subgroups, and trauma 00:09:57.529 --> 00:10:01.710 survivors all utilizing the exact same linguistic 00:10:01.710 --> 00:10:04.230 tool. But I have a genuine question about this. 00:10:05.169 --> 00:10:08.029 Does taking this grand historical title, a title 00:10:08.029 --> 00:10:10.509 meant to build entire nations and applying it 00:10:10.509 --> 00:10:13.289 to very specific subgroups, I mean, does that 00:10:13.289 --> 00:10:15.370 dilute the meaning of the phrase? How do you 00:10:15.370 --> 00:10:17.509 mean? Like, if everyone has a Bill of Rights, 00:10:17.590 --> 00:10:20.149 doesn't it just become a glorified list of demands? 00:10:20.409 --> 00:10:22.759 This raises an important question about how language 00:10:22.759 --> 00:10:26.039 functions as a tool for social equity. I'd argue 00:10:26.039 --> 00:10:28.679 it does the exact opposite of diluting the phrase. 00:10:29.179 --> 00:10:31.759 It weaponizes the historical gravity of the phrase 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:34.200 for empowerment. Weaponizes it. Let's look at 00:10:34.200 --> 00:10:36.340 the mechanism. If you call something a list of 00:10:36.340 --> 00:10:39.200 guidelines or a policy proposal, it implies it's 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:40.919 optional. It's up for debate. Sure, it sounds 00:10:40.919 --> 00:10:43.480 bureaucratic. But by drafting a homeless bill 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:45.820 of rights or a sexual assault survivor's bill 00:10:45.820 --> 00:10:48.259 of rights, these groups are fundamentally stating, 00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:51.679 we are part of the citizenry. And we are demanding 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:54.379 the unassailable protections historically reserved 00:10:54.379 --> 00:10:57.299 for the majority. Oh, wow. They are holding up 00:10:57.299 --> 00:11:00.940 a mirror to the original 1789 documents and saying, 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:04.240 you wrote, all men are created equal, but you 00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:07.620 clearly missed a spot. Exactly. Take the Homosexual 00:11:07.620 --> 00:11:09.879 Bill of Rights mentioned in the source, drafted 00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:11.899 by the North American Conference of Homophile 00:11:11.899 --> 00:11:14.120 Organizations, which was a network of early gay 00:11:14.120 --> 00:11:16.720 rights groups in the late 1960s. Right. They 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:19.039 weren't just asking for nicer treatment. They 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:21.620 were demanding the legal status of a recognized 00:11:21.620 --> 00:11:24.200 citizenry. Consider the alternative for a moment. 00:11:24.299 --> 00:11:27.039 If the advocates behind the Sexual Assault Survivors 00:11:27.039 --> 00:11:29.440 Bill of Rights just ask for, you know, better 00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:32.220 evidence handling, It gets lost in bureaucratic 00:11:32.220 --> 00:11:34.440 red tape. Absolutely. It just becomes a memo. 00:11:34.620 --> 00:11:37.200 But by framing it as a bill of rights, they shifted 00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:40.220 the survivor from being a mere evidence provider 00:11:40.220 --> 00:11:43.120 in a police system to a citizen with inherent 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:45.419 rights to have their rape kit tracked and preserved. 00:11:45.620 --> 00:11:48.679 It implies a moral imperative. Exactly. Violating 00:11:48.679 --> 00:11:51.019 those terms is no longer just a breach of policy. 00:11:51.379 --> 00:11:54.159 It is a violation of a sacred social contract. 00:11:54.269 --> 00:11:56.970 The GI Bill is another perfect example of how 00:11:56.970 --> 00:11:59.649 successful this framing is. The source specifically 00:11:59.649 --> 00:12:02.950 links it as the Veterans Bill of Rights. After 00:12:02.950 --> 00:12:04.730 World War II, the U .S. could have just offered 00:12:04.730 --> 00:12:08.370 a military benefits package. But benefits can 00:12:08.370 --> 00:12:12.149 be cut during a budget crisis. Precisely. Framing 00:12:12.149 --> 00:12:15.049 it as a Bill of Rights solidified the idea that 00:12:15.049 --> 00:12:17.710 veterans were inherently owed housing and education 00:12:17.710 --> 00:12:20.509 by the nation they bled for. It completely changes 00:12:20.509 --> 00:12:22.809 the psychology of the law. It really does. And 00:12:22.809 --> 00:12:25.169 just as a quick aside, the source lists all these 00:12:25.169 --> 00:12:28.409 diverse groups from LGBTQ organizations to... 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:30.759 advocates for women in the mosque without commentary. 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:32.919 And so are we. Right. We're just looking at the 00:12:32.919 --> 00:12:34.840 language. The fascinating through line isn't 00:12:34.840 --> 00:12:37.399 the specific politics of each group. It's the 00:12:37.399 --> 00:12:39.879 fact that they all independently decided this 00:12:39.879 --> 00:12:42.740 specific phrase was the heaviest linguistic hammer 00:12:42.740 --> 00:12:45.820 they could swing. It is the ultimate bypass of 00:12:45.820 --> 00:12:48.600 standard lobbying. They're identifying a massive 00:12:48.600 --> 00:12:51.220 power imbalance, whether that's a homeless individual 00:12:51.220 --> 00:12:54.600 facing a hostile city ordinance or a woman seeking 00:12:54.600 --> 00:12:57.639 equal space in a mosque and drafting a declaration. 00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:00.259 correct it. So we've gone from kings and parliaments 00:13:00.259 --> 00:13:03.039 to the UN and global human rights all the way 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:05.779 down to vulnerable demographics demanding equal 00:13:05.779 --> 00:13:08.600 protection. Quite the journey. But the Wikipedia 00:13:08.600 --> 00:13:12.059 disambiguation page doesn't stop there. The final 00:13:12.059 --> 00:13:14.179 evolution of the term is where the concept gets 00:13:14.179 --> 00:13:16.740 hyper specific. We move out of life and death 00:13:16.740 --> 00:13:19.080 human rights and into the regulation of daily 00:13:19.080 --> 00:13:21.879 commerce niche professions and local community 00:13:21.879 --> 00:13:24.809 standards. the micro rights. This is where the 00:13:24.809 --> 00:13:27.190 concept infiltrates our everyday routines. On 00:13:27.190 --> 00:13:29.549 the economic and consumer front, the source lists 00:13:29.549 --> 00:13:31.629 a consumer bill of rights and a taxpayer bill 00:13:31.629 --> 00:13:33.950 of rights and incredibly a credit card holders 00:13:33.950 --> 00:13:36.190 bill of rights, which is so specific. Very. It 00:13:36.190 --> 00:13:38.090 was specifically contained within the Credit 00:13:38.090 --> 00:13:41.769 Card Act of 2009. We also have civic and educational 00:13:41.769 --> 00:13:44.230 versions. The California Voter Bill of Rights, 00:13:44.309 --> 00:13:46.389 which the page notes, is an adaptation of the 00:13:46.389 --> 00:13:48.690 Voting Rights Act. There is an academic bill 00:13:48.690 --> 00:13:51.870 of rights, a New Jersey anti -bullying Bill of 00:13:51.870 --> 00:13:55.159 Rights Act. and the Library Bill of Rights published 00:13:55.159 --> 00:13:57.500 by the American Library Association. We also 00:13:57.500 --> 00:14:00.500 see the creative and environmental sectors utilizing 00:14:00.500 --> 00:14:03.639 it. The Creators' Bill of Rights and the Environmental 00:14:03.639 --> 00:14:06.899 Bill of Rights, which is also listed as Agenda 00:14:06.899 --> 00:14:09.750 21. I am looking at this entry for an academic 00:14:09.750 --> 00:14:11.750 Bill of Rights, and I have to admit I'm a little 00:14:11.750 --> 00:14:15.529 lost, or even the New Jersey Anti -Bullying Bill 00:14:15.529 --> 00:14:17.490 of Rights Act. It seems like a stretch. Yeah, 00:14:17.649 --> 00:14:19.889 like how does a state policy about middle school 00:14:19.889 --> 00:14:21.830 bullying carry the weight of a constitutional 00:14:21.830 --> 00:14:25.029 concept? So what does this all mean? Look at 00:14:25.029 --> 00:14:28.889 the journey. 1689 English Parliament to 2009 00:14:28.889 --> 00:14:31.509 credit card holders. It's a massive leap. I look 00:14:31.509 --> 00:14:33.330 at this list and the only conclusion I can draw 00:14:33.330 --> 00:14:35.649 is that the phrase Bill of Rights has essentially 00:14:35.649 --> 00:14:38.389 become brand franchising. Brand franchising. 00:14:38.750 --> 00:14:40.389 Okay, expand on that. How do you mean? Think 00:14:40.389 --> 00:14:42.830 about it like a universally recognized open source 00:14:42.830 --> 00:14:45.389 template. You no longer need to be a revolutionary 00:14:45.389 --> 00:14:47.429 founding father wearing a powdered wig to use 00:14:47.429 --> 00:14:50.080 it. Right. No wigs required anymore. If you want 00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:51.960 to establish how comic book artists are treated 00:14:51.960 --> 00:14:54.960 by massive publishers, which is what the creator's 00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:57.080 Bill of Rights was doing in the late 80s to fight 00:14:57.080 --> 00:15:00.179 expletive work for higher contracts, you just 00:15:00.179 --> 00:15:02.100 download the Bill of Rights template. That makes 00:15:02.100 --> 00:15:04.620 total sense. If you want to stop banks from hitting 00:15:04.620 --> 00:15:07.240 people with hidden late fees, you use the template 00:15:07.240 --> 00:15:10.620 to pass the 2009 Credit Card Act. If you want 00:15:10.620 --> 00:15:13.019 to mandate how a school in New Jersey reports 00:15:13.019 --> 00:15:15.879 bullying, you just slap the title on it. The 00:15:15.879 --> 00:15:17.779 historical branding does all the heavy lifting 00:15:17.779 --> 00:15:20.500 to convince people It's important. That is a 00:15:20.500 --> 00:15:22.500 phenomenal way to look at it. The concept has 00:15:22.500 --> 00:15:26.259 been entirely democratized. The underlying logic 00:15:26.259 --> 00:15:29.399 here is that the word citizenry, from our original 00:15:29.399 --> 00:15:31.259 definition, a declaration of the rights that 00:15:31.259 --> 00:15:34.419 a citizenry have, has fractured into a thousand 00:15:34.419 --> 00:15:36.980 different modern identities. Fractured. You are 00:15:36.980 --> 00:15:39.820 a citizen of your country, yes. But you're also 00:15:39.820 --> 00:15:42.480 a citizen of the consumer market. You're a citizen 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:45.139 of your local library. You're a citizen of the 00:15:45.139 --> 00:15:48.919 digital economy. And Every one of those sub -citizenships 00:15:48.919 --> 00:15:52.059 requires its own set of declared rights to protect 00:15:52.059 --> 00:15:54.200 you from the specific powers that be in that 00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:57.259 arena. A national constitution doesn't tell a 00:15:57.259 --> 00:15:59.519 credit card company how to calculate interest. 00:15:59.559 --> 00:16:02.750 Exactly. The power dynamic is the key. When you 00:16:02.750 --> 00:16:04.889 sign a credit card agreement, the bank holds 00:16:04.889 --> 00:16:07.230 all the power. They hold all the cards, literally. 00:16:07.549 --> 00:16:09.870 Literally. A credit card holder's Bill of Rights 00:16:09.870 --> 00:16:13.110 draws a box around the bank, utilizing the exact 00:16:13.110 --> 00:16:16.909 same conceptual architecture that the 1689 document 00:16:16.909 --> 00:16:19.389 used to draw a box around the English king. That's 00:16:19.389 --> 00:16:22.090 amazing. The American Library Association, which 00:16:22.090 --> 00:16:24.409 drafted their library Bill of Rights to resist 00:16:24.409 --> 00:16:27.190 censorship, wields the tool just like the French 00:16:27.190 --> 00:16:30.509 Assembly. The scale is vastly different, but 00:16:30.509 --> 00:16:33.379 the causality is identical. Identify an imbalance 00:16:33.379 --> 00:16:35.500 of power, declare the inherent rights of the 00:16:35.500 --> 00:16:38.320 user, and codify it to prevent abuse. It's just 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:40.080 incredible. We started this deep dive looking 00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:42.940 at a simple Wikipedia disambiguation page, which 00:16:42.940 --> 00:16:45.740 most people just click past when they search 00:16:45.740 --> 00:16:48.019 for the wrong thing. It's usually just a navigational 00:16:48.019 --> 00:16:51.740 annoyance. Exactly. But hidden inside that mechanical 00:16:51.740 --> 00:16:55.320 list of links is this massive, sweeping story 00:16:55.320 --> 00:16:59.320 of human organization. We started with a 1689 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:01.700 speech in England defining the conditions of 00:17:01.700 --> 00:17:05.420 a monarchy, and we ended up in a 2009 U .S. law 00:17:05.420 --> 00:17:07.740 protecting consumers from hidden credit card 00:17:07.740 --> 00:17:10.180 fees. It covers a lot of ground. It shows how 00:17:10.180 --> 00:17:12.500 our definition of a declaration of rights is 00:17:12.500 --> 00:17:15.339 constantly shrinking and expanding to fit the 00:17:15.339 --> 00:17:17.720 anxieties and the specific needs of the times. 00:17:17.960 --> 00:17:20.119 The concrete foundation isn't static at all. 00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:22.440 We're pouring new concrete every single day. 00:17:22.740 --> 00:17:24.920 The reality is, you, the person listening to 00:17:24.920 --> 00:17:27.420 this right now, are navigating these overlapping 00:17:27.420 --> 00:17:29.759 layers of rights every single day. Yeah, you 00:17:29.759 --> 00:17:31.720 really are. When you vote in a local election, 00:17:31.859 --> 00:17:33.579 when you swipe your credit card to buy coffee, 00:17:33.700 --> 00:17:35.160 when you check out a book at the library, or 00:17:35.160 --> 00:17:37.460 just when you exist in your community, you are 00:17:37.460 --> 00:17:40.740 walking through a complex, invisible web of declared 00:17:40.740 --> 00:17:43.740 rights that someone, somewhere, had to fight 00:17:43.740 --> 00:17:46.359 to write down. We are constantly remodeling the 00:17:46.359 --> 00:17:48.420 house. Which leaves us with a final thought for 00:17:48.420 --> 00:17:50.720 you to chew on. We've talked about grand nations, 00:17:51.059 --> 00:17:53.619 global UN organizations, specific demographics, 00:17:53.740 --> 00:17:56.099 and even everyday consumers. We've covered it 00:17:56.099 --> 00:17:59.000 all. But if you were to draft a personal Bill 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:01.819 of Rights for your own life today, not for a 00:18:01.819 --> 00:18:04.440 nation, not for a demographic group, but just 00:18:04.440 --> 00:18:07.460 for you as the sole citizen of your own life, 00:18:07.500 --> 00:18:10.799 what would be the very first unassailable right 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:13.319 you write into the concrete? That's a great question. 00:18:13.539 --> 00:18:15.119 Think about what boundaries you need to draw 00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:17.240 to protect yourself today. Thanks for joining 00:18:17.240 --> 00:18:18.240 us on this Deep Dive.