A Republic - if you can keep it
This day, July 4, one cannot help but say something positive about the United States of America. With all of its chaos, partisanship, dynamism, corruption and commerce in full view on a daily basis, the country badly needs a simple and positive endorsement from someone.
The title quote above is from one of my favourite Americans in history -Benjamin Franklin. A Scientist, Inventor, Philosopher, Politician and Enlightenment icon who will likely soon be erased from the record by the woke mob for crimes TBA, he nevertheless stands as a giant by any standards. Meanwhile, the enabling liberals prostrate themselves accordingly and will soon trip over their guilt while assisting the removal of his statues and works. Of that I have little doubt. Franklin ticks very few woke boxes for them.
The US seems to be in trouble on a continual basis, unable to reconcile the hysterical ravings of the media extremes. At times it seems unable to even provide basic necessities for many of its people. Yet, despite all of the mob rants to the contrary, the concept upon which the country gained its independence may be naive, but certainly it is not malevolent. The Federalist papers and many of the voluminous letters between luminaries such as Franklin, Jefferson, Madison and Adams remain to this day a pinnacle of intellectual discourse for those who take the time to read them. The woke mob has no time for reading.
Admittedly, in many ways, things have worked out pretty badly for the majority of Americans. Much of the ongoing turmoil is based on this negative outcome and concomitant resentment. The Wild West was like a casino, with fortunes to be gained and lost either by hard work or hard luck. Government was the enemy. This untethered ‘dog eat dog’ culture is at the basis of much of the structure - or lack thereof - still underpinning the country. It accounts for both the positive and negative aspects of this complicated culture. We could enumerate some of the things that are distasteful about it and its people, but perhaps today is a day to celebrate a few positive virtues of both.
There is a natural and also childish aspect to the prototypical American - no airs of sophistication. One can almost feel that they are suspicious of sophistication in all forms and this may have originated in the historical anti-British sentiment. This simplicity pervades many aspects of their culture, whether in food, fashion, manners or language. Hemingway, Warhol, John Cage and Kurt Vonnegut are but a few examples of this type of sensibility. I have always been amazed that most of the Presidents, in the last many decades at least, have adopted a folksy language style of ‘comin and goin’ despite their advanced education. It is a political liability in the US to appear to be educated and dropping ‘gs’ is a must. Charming!
There is a propensity for Americans to be very straightforward in their communication, as opposed to the Canadian fetish for the indirect and dislike of strength or intensity of any kind. One can find the American way jarring, but one can also find it bracing. You know where you stand with most Americans and they don’t mind you getting in their face if you have to. In fact, they respect you for it. Canadians have surrendered many things in their culture due to their own pusillanimous nature and fear to be direct or assertive in a similar fashion. Much is to be learned from it.
Americans are not apologetic about themselves at all, as opposed to Canadians who begin apologizing to everyone for everything when they roll out of bed in the morning.
You can always confront an American with disagreement (and hope that they aren’t packin’ an assault weapon). There is something to be said for honest conflict rather than dishonest harmony and Americans love their honest conflict. We see it unfold on a daily basis in various forms. It is dynamic and dialectical, as opposed to the insipid Canadian idea of consensus and group think. It is also messy and partisan, and not rooted in Big Government social engineering with which many Canadians are presently so enamoured.
Americans love commerce. There have been more patents of all kinds issued and more entrepreneurs created in the United States than most other countries combined and I salute their ingenuity and embrace of innovation and financial markets. While Dickens derided their ‘mercantile culture’, I see it as a boon to the nation and the world. To a Canadian, a customer is a problem. Inevitably, shop owners here make you feel like you shouldn’t have dared to enter their store. However, to an American, a customer is an opportunity. They may be a bit over the top sometimes, but they welcome your business and they will go out of their way to satisfy your craving to buy something. i find it to be a relief.
American culture has produced, especially in view of its brief history, a great number of stars in the world of arts and letters. There are too many to list, but I have a long one containing my favourite writers, film makers, musicians, speakers, etc etc. The culture is set up to encourage people to try new things, and there is not the toxic fear of failure and resentment of success there that there is in Canada. Americans love a person who fails and then makes a come back, and that is admirable.
Speaking of success, here are four areas that are astonishing in terms of American contributions to world culture - Jazz, Comedy (especially the contribution from the Borscht Belt tradition), Movies/Theatre and Major League Sports. During this dreary Covid time, who has not sorely missed live events of all of them? And add to that the huge role of immigrants in many of these fields and you get a sense of just how odd the present paranoia about immigration really is.
Most important, Americans love and prioritize the word and concept of Freedom. They may possess differing ideas about what Freedom is and they may argue passionately in the process, but their priority of guarding (American at least) individual freedom is to be celebrated by any student of Enlightenment ideals and human affairs. The first Amendment of their Constitution - that of free speech - is truly revolutionary in concept and unheard of anywhere else in history. It is the opening salvo in a social and political experiment that has created much turmoil and has not seen its end - yet.
French Prime Minister Clemenceau famously quipped;
“America is the only nation in history which, miraculously, has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”
As true as his amusing observation may be, today I nod to Benjamin Franklin, who deeply understood the truly revolutionary, idealistic and precarious aspirations in the nascent yearnings of the newborn United States. As the attached article describes, his answer to the question of what had been created on the day of American Independence was pithy, clever and brief. Yet he was challenging the future country and its people to make it work.
Let’s hope they do make it work, for all of us will gain from it.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/07/04/franklins_admonition_143610.html