Is there such a thing as the half life of freedom? Are we living through the increasingly rapid decay of the American Idea? After establishing the United States of America in 1776, the revolutionary writers of the Declaration of Independence established the first truly free civilization in world history. Sure, there have been ancient civilizations that offered citizens participation, but in the end, the ruler, the king, the Pharaoh or whatever they called themselves, the leader or leaders, made all of the consequential decisions. Some will say, no, the Native American tribes took votes. The elders consulted with the fathers before making tribal decisions. But the fact is no other form of civilization ever bestowed immutable, God-given rights to every citizen. No other civilized society bestowed the presumption of innocence on those accused of crimes against the people. Few if any other governments protect private property rights like ours. Here we are 245 years later and until recently, those foundational assumptions have held up pretty good. That is why America has such a massive immigration load to bear. People from all over the world make it their life goal to come to America. Sometimes that requires leaving family, friends and property behind. It often means great risk to life itself! No one in their right mind would subject themselves and their loved ones to the dangers of emigrating to a foreign country if they thought they would be met with systemic racism, with rampant anti-immigrant bigotry and persecution or homelessness. I am a product of immigrants that came on ships from England in the early 1800's. So my lineage is almost as old as America's. They struggled to feed themselves, to provide shelter, to move out West. Their lives were short, their pleasures few and far between. But they kept their eyes on the prize: They promoted and protected liberty. They hired town sheriffs to protect themselves from bullies. They formed town councils, and sent representatives to Washington. No small feat when travel was slow and difficult. They built local schools, and started businesses. They volunteered to fight for territory, for sovereignty and for their family. Their American Family. Each generation faced massive change and difficulties. They faced bitter weather, famine and disease. They warred with other forces that also wanted to occupy the New Frontier. They warred with each other over resources and the great wealth it produced. If we look back in history we can see that some civilizations lasted hundreds of years. The Egyptian, Incan and Aztec civilizations survived for 3000 years! As advanced as they were, building roads and water supply systems, they were no match for the disease brought upon them by the Spanish Conquistadors. Ancient Greece managed to last longer than any of them. They came as close to what we have as any ancient society. Much of our social structure is based on their principles of citizen participation, on education and democratic principles. They lasted close to three thousand years! The Danubian, Chinese, Roman, Persian and Byzantine Empires lasted for less than 1500 years. There are many other examples of civilizations that survived harsh realities for many generations. But they all had strong personalities acting as decision makers. They did not use anything like our Constitutional Republic form of government and social organization. The leaders sometimes referred to deities as their inspiration or authority. In a sense, so do we. Our Judeo-Christian values are the foundation of our ruling laws. But we all live under basic systemic values, that people should be the source of authority not the subjects of it. As human economic and technological capabilities increased so did the brevity of the survival rates of cultures around the world. The more people were informed by communications, the less stable governments and states became. Now we are living in an "information age" and it appears that instability across the planet is increasing. We have learned to avoid bloody ground wars, but we are increasing the practice of cultural and information manipulations. The result is a return to tribalization. Instead of picking our associations based on territory and religion, now people are choosing their cultural alignments based on information streams, on economic and business requirements, and less and less on regional or national allegiances. Change is the norm now. Just in the past century there have been no less than 63 countries that have changed their names and in many cases adjusted their borders. Language is fluid, not just regionally but phonetically. Dialects are like the number of bird species on Earth: Basically impossible to catalogue. Freedom as defined by the Founding Fathers is unprecedented in history. Alexis de Tocqueville, the French writer, philosopher and sociologist, after visiting America, said it best: "Now I know of only two methods of establishing equality in the political world; every citizen must be put in possession of his rights, or rights must be granted to no one." So should we be surprised that an experiment as radical and historically untested as America may well be reaching its half life? |
Archives
March 2024
|