Two notes to critics of the United States on why the founding of the United States was such a radical break, despite all flaws, with a few notes on the broader historical context.
“Small wheel turning by the fire and rod
Big wheel turning by the grace of God
Every time that wheel turn round
Bound to cover just a little more ground”
The Wheel
Do you know what Europe was like in the 1700s? Asia? Anywhere? Chattel slavery was exceptionally brutal, but almost no-one, anywhere, was free, and especially no woman. The very idea of equality was shocking in much of the world at that time. It still is, today, to many. Without study, it is almost impossible for someone raised in the modern United States or Western Europe to imagine the hold which hierarchy–caste or class if you like–had on the thinking of that time.
What they thought and did made possible what we do and think now. Their ideals, however poorly they served them, were a step away from philosophies which had everyone in servitude to hereditary aristocrats and priests. I wish I could say we were done with slavery and servitude but look at the world! You talk about coming up with something that “works,” but this does not happen by accident; without serious effort, slavery and servitude is what “works.” We have to continually defend and expand the ideals of freedom if we are to have it at all.
Historically, ideas of freedom and equality recur in religion and philosophy. They seldom last more than a few centuries, then are vitiated, but they always recur. Historically, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism all have promulgated ideas of liberation. In our time, the United States owes its ideals of freedom and equality to the European Enlightenment, which religious reactionaries and politicians of many countries are desperately trying to bury. Maybe they will succeed. If so, I hope the future will remember: All men were created equal.
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