Enlightened Self-Interest

The colonization of North America took time and toil, and hardened those who struggled to build new lives for themselves in a world that was wilderness. It forged bonds between men that might not have existed previously and encouraged the communities that sprung up to work cooperatively and establish trading relations. It did not erase suspicions or weaken religious prejudices, but it was certainly not in the best interests of any enclave in the Americas to leave itself isolated, with so many potential pitfalls working to prevent success.

Even at the rapid clip of human endeavor, which far outstrips the natural forces that shape humanity and the planet, it was a slow and inexorable crawl toward union. The catalyst for union turned out to be the very forces that had driven people to escape across an ocean in the first place: the assumption of power by aristocracy. Where, back in England and in many places in Europe, land was owned by feudal lords who held all the rights and therefore the power, those who came to the Americas were able to establish rights to land without the need for overlords. Though much of the legitimacy for the grants of land in the New World was given by monarchy, it was the landowners themselves who found it desirable and necessary to manage their own affairs in terms of governance.

This system might have maintained itself for centuries, with the New World continuing to hold a respectful but aloof stance from the Old World, were it not for the intercession of monarchy in the realm of taxation. The relative prosperity and abundant resources to be found across the Atlantic were a natural draw; the American colonies were a vast a source of wealth that the British Monarchy and Parliament could draw on to continue to finance its wars in Europe and in the Americas. England, still vexed by France and Spain, increasingly sought new revenue to maintain its naval supremacy and control over its territories.

Now, a certain level of taxation was to be expected in order to pay for the maintenance of trade and the military garrisons that protected the American Colonies from native and foreign invaders. However, taxation became rampant, squeezing the colonists out of their new-found wealth, to finance the indiscretions of the British Empire. With proclamations like The Stamp Act, it became increasingly clear to the colonists that Great Britain saw the American Colonies as merely a source of capital, and would continue to drain them of vital wealth and resources needed to promote local growth and prosperity in the process.

The singular and most frustrating point, the one that would prove the linchpin for the promotion of revolution, was the fact that the American Colonies had no say in the British Parliament. Not that it would have mattered; Parliament was determined to use the wealth of America to sop up the losses caused by having to operate as a naval superpower. Representation might have forestalled the eventual revolution, but could not seriously have prevented it.

So, we have a band of Colonials who have -- having organized a working society, worked hard to bring themselves prosperity, and lacking sufficient representation -- determined that they must form a confederation and fight against Britain. This was not a decision made in haste, and there were many filled with trepidation at the thought of severing ties with the mother country so rashly. While the colonies had become more independent by the year, they were still not self-sufficient to a great degree. Cutting ties would push Americans into a difficult corner to extricate themselves from; losing access to vital materials while having to find ways to replace those materials with substitutes. It would require sacrifice. More than that, it would require a higher degree of unity than existed at that moment.

Such unity turned out to be a frail but manageable thing, though as the revolution to come progressed from idea to full-fledged battles, it would be strained to degrees that should have broken it. Even as the war was fought, many in the American Colonies were still not convinced in the righteousness of the cause. This would have consequences both during and after the war; unity was not perfect or complete at any point. It would cause the war to drag on longer than perhaps it should have, cost more than it needed to, and exacerbated divisions that had long been swept aside in the name of enlightened self-interest. But first, there was a war to fight, and America had to figure out how to do that.

From Whence The Power Comes

Let us start at the beginning, not necessarily in time, but more in structure, though they are intertwined by the founding of the United States. For, in the beginning, there was no United States, but a collection of Colonies, peopled mainly by white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants of various stripes and beliefs, interspersed with other colonials from various parts of Europe, living amid the indigenous people who called the North American continent their home before the first white settler knew of its existence. Already, there was a diverse spread of human being here, before even one shot was fired in anger.

Of course, this is not the "melting pot" of which many were taught in school growing up. The people who came to North America were in earnest to maintain the homogeneity of their various religious and ethnic groups, in the face of a mounting tide of tolerance building up in Europe in the 1600's. The Protestant Reformation had allowed Christian groups of various and sometimes subtle persuasion to grow profusely across the face of the Old World, eventually causing an increase in strife as groups bumped up against one another within the same borders, who shared a common root but were so opposed in belief that they thought the other blasphemous.

The New World was seen as a way to, at once, allow these groups their individuality in the face of the growing tide of religious and social division in the Old World, while simultaneously providing a natural buffer of space between these self-same groups that would avoid conflict. As each group was able to gather together sufficient people, provisions, and money to do so, they would strike out for the new and mysterious continent in order to settle into new and hopefully less stressful accommodations. They brought with them the hope of establishing a new order in a new place.

What they got for their trouble, in many instances, was the idea that perhaps they had been a bit hasty in leaving behind the comfortable world for the pioneer world. No amount of planning and provisioning could prepare them for what came with landing on new and virgin soil. Many a colony found itself in a desperate fight for survival from the very start, and several would wind up disappearing into the mists of history. For the Old World to get a toehold on the New World, they would have to fight for survival in a way that was more akin to Biblical times than the times they were in.

What that struggle for survival, and the expansion of the colonial populations meant, ultimately, is that the disparate groups that were so willing to remove themselves to the hinterlands of organized society in order to be free to worship and work as they wished, would have to grow back together to provide mutual support and strength in order for all to survive. Outposts slowly expanded, became stable, were able to set up trade among themselves and with their mother countries, common currencies were established, common law was threshed out, and slowly, self-government came about to maintain order.

So, when we look to see the root of what would become America, it was the slow, inexorable growing together of groups which sought to maintain their independence but at the same time forge links to other groups to form a more cohesive and self-supporting society. It took the crucible of survival in a hostile land to bring together groups which were more interested, initially, in remaining apart. Even this, though, would not be enough to smooth over the basic disagreements between groups, and the need for a cohesive society could not eliminate the thought by each group that it should be the one to lead.

This set the table for what was to come. With the intercession of England in Colonial affairs, and not for the best, a system which might have evolved over generations was forced to move at a greater pace, breaking the normal reticence of some, allowing others a moment to bring their passion for human society to the fore, and laying the groundwork for one of the greatest experiments in government to be conceived. As we shall see, the sudden implosion caused by war, could not help but form a system that would still carry deep flaws, flaws evident even to this day.

Introduction

It is clear here, at the opening of the 21st Century, that there is a chasm between what the United States of America should be and what it is becoming. That chasm, plainly, is idiocy, defined for our purposes as the willful perpetuation of false ideas and ideals in the name of American history leading to the pursuit of ridiculous and counterproductive courses which endanger the health, safety, and welfare of the American people. While some of this idiocy is as plain as the nose on one's face, much of it is veiled in obfuscation created to keep the average American from seeing any part of the truth clearly enough to recognize the whole artifice as corrupt.

Within these pages, I hope to outline the disconnect between what American is -- a Constitutionally-driven democratic Republic with the potential to become greater than its founders could have imagined -- and what many in this country would have you believe it is -- a debased, self-indulgent, rootless, lawless, over-legislated, morally bankrupt nation in need of radical religious and social reform. This disconnect is the chasm of idiocy that we must bridge, if we, as a people and a nation, are to reach our full potential. Before we may accomplish the righting of our course through history, we have to take a step back and fix a firm gaze on what we are doing right now and how that relates to what those who formed this nation originally intended.

Your author will no doubt be called heretical from many corners of this land for what you are about to read, but the first step to breaking the grip of idiocy is to see clearly what we choose not to see, and recognize that not all those things shouted in the public square are true to the core. A modicum, a scintilla, an iota of truth may be spun into a grand and elegant fiction which seems true enough that it is not questioned. If we are to be true to the founding of this nation, however, we must hold to the idea that everything must be questioned, even those things that seem within our best interests. This nation was founded upon the bedrock principle of an informed electorate choosing those who would best represent their interests locally moving to a national stage, where the best interests of all would be considered in open debate. Where we have strayed is in allowing that bedrock to crumble beneath the weight of self-interest and political control. It is there we shall begin.