As far as what we have forfeited goes, Adele's undelivered words must take on the tantalising mystery of Abraham Lincoln's lost speech, which is always held to have been the most electrifying diatribe against slavery.
Most computer users have become dependent on proprietary code provided by companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google, the use of which comes with conditions we may not condone or even know about, and can't control; we have forfeited the freedom to adapt such code according to our needs, preferences, and personal ethics.
The rest of us are still very much stuck into politics, and indeed to economics, and just because we haven't taken the decision to become a career politician and devote our lives to the noble business of trooping where we're told in the voting lobbies, or attempting to get the taxpayer to fund our patio furniture, doesn't mean we have forfeited the right to an opinion.
We have forfeited enormous amounts of moral leadership as the world's sole remaining superpower.
You've forfeited your right to be a police officer.
Does plunking down your VISA at the MAC counter mean you've forfeited your feminist card?
"Anyone who raises a gun or a knife to Australians simply because of who we are and the values we have has forfeited his or her right to consider himself one of us," he said.
"Anyone who raised a gun or a knife to Australians simply because of who we are and the values we have has forfeited his or her right to consider themselves one of us.
If we can't do that or even something like that, if we can't find the humility to apologize for our role in this epic campaign of slander and false witness and instead continue to embrace the lies spread by the Center for Medical Progress, we will have forfeited the moral high ground we so proudly claim in the abortion debate.
But consider the gems we would have forfeited if focus groups had always held sway: Saul Bass's pop-art masterpieces, the "Pink Panther" animations, Maurice Binder's psychedelic "James Bond" reveries (which are still imitated, both within the Bond series and by others, such as David Fincher's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo").
