Tag: Declaration of Independence

In defense of the American Revolution

I hope everyone had a nice and safe July 4th celebration last night. We spent some time with some neighbors, playing with some small noisemakers and chatting. It was a good low key evening.

This moment was kind of a big deal

I just wanted to add a quick reminder, after yesterday’s post on my complicated feelings about this holiday. It is good to remember that, in the context of the American Revolution, the alternative to the flawed and limited republic envisioned by the Founders was monarchy, an authoritarian and nepotistic practice that impoverished and oppressed countless millions and was presided over by a bunch of fools. Alan Jacobs explicated this brilliantly at his own blog yesterday, quoting lenghtily from a Thomas Jefferson letter on the subject. These words from Jefferson really stuck out at me:

While in Europe, I often amused myself with contemplating the characters of the then reigning sovereigns of Europe. Louis the XVIth was a fool, of my own knowledge, & in despite of the answers made for him at his trial. The king of Spain was a fool, & of Naples the same. They passed their lives in hunting, & dispatched two couriers a week, 1000 miles, to let each other know what game they had killed the preceding days. The king of Sardinia was a fool. All these were Bourbons. The Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature & so was the king of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised the powers of government. The king of Prussia, successor to the great Frederic, was a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus of Sweden, & Joseph of Austria were really crazy, & George of England you know was in a straight waistcoat.

I think many people of the left, in their well-meaning and often correct critique of American imperialism and other national sins, shade too far in the other direction, often coming close to the line of stating that the American revolution wasn’t even worth it, that it was a corrupt experiment from the beginning and the world would have been better off without it. This is, in short, crazy. The American revolution was not perfect, and neither were the Founders, but the alternative was not better. This is the point I was making yesterday about the Declaration of Independence. The American Revolution was a giant step forward, a war that launched the world into the Age of Revolutions and the rise of a culture that eventually outlawed slavery, expanded rights in unimaginable directions, and broke colonialism. The French Revolution, that paragon of leftist nostalgia, would have been unthinkable without the inspiration of the colonies. Even the liberalizing of the UK and the diminishment of the monarchy doesn’t happen like it did if America doesn’t reveal it’s weaknesses and inspire future anti-colonial uprisings. None of these things happens on the timeline they did without the precipitating moment that was 1776.

One last note: the aforementioned Age of Revolutions is a fascinating time in history, which shaped the world in ways we can’t even imagine, but which many people often don’t even know the half of. If you’d like to learn more about this time, I can’t recommend Mike Duncan’s Revolutions podcast enough. It is fantastic.

a few brief thoughts on a complicated holiday

Today is the 4th of July, Independence Day here in the States, the day where we are commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and generally celebrate America. I don’t have a lot to say about it here, on a blog about theology and culture. Usually, I would write a post about the dangers of intermingling Christianity and patriotism, but I’ve not only done that here before, it is also something done in a million other places, to the point of being overdone (progressive Christian social media is almost unbearable today, in terms of the posturing and point scoring this day brings.) Generally, I affirm those views, and I very stringently avoid patriotism in general in my own life, viewing it as ultimately incompatible with my Christian commitments., not to mention the gross fetishization of American flags, nationalist chauvinism, and a kind of blind hubris.

That said, its also true that America, while unavoidably resting on a history of acts that are despicable and terrible, is also, historically speaking, a uniquely liberal and open place, and those of us who live here are pretty lucky, all things considered. Furthermore, the Declaration of Independence (which, again, is the core of today’s celebration, or at least should be) is a pretty remarkable document, in terms of being a document staking out a strong anti-authoritarian and anti-hierarchical claim. It really is an amazing document for its ability to provide ground to stand on for all future independence movements. It rightfully has a place as a crucial historical moment for all those committed to a better, more just and free world for all peoples, especially those laboring under the boot of authority and domination. It has its shortcomings for sure, as does its author, but all in all, there are worse things to reflect on today than the Declaration.