Happy 4th of July everyone! Today we celebrate the day that our Founding Fathers did a very brave thing by mailing a copy of the Declaration of Independence to the King of England. Of course, since mail in those days was really slow, he didn’t get it for months later, but, this is the day where there was no turning back for the country- there would be independence or there would be a war.
When I lived in Washington, there was always a joint party on either the 2nd or the 3rd with Canada, where both countries celebrated our respective days and our long and enduring friendship. In North Dakota, it was the same thing, except it was held at the International Peace Garden. So, even though it was three days ago, I want to give a shout-out to Canada, and how they gained their independence by filing the correct paperwork (in hindsight, I wish the early Americans would have thought about doing that.)
All joking aside, today is the day that I really think about what it means to be an American. For all of the complaining that some conservatives say about liberals and our patriotism, I think that in a very real way liberals understand that it’s not the dirt that we were born on that makes us Americans. The United States is not great because we have the largest economy, nor is it great because we have arguably the most powerful military on the globe. We are great because we are a shifting, arguing, debating, fighting experiment of democracy. We are not a perfect country, and should never pretend we are, but the ideals that we have are worth striving for, and worth struggling over and yes, worth being proud of.
When I was little, I was taught about the Declaration of Independence, and the words gave me a thrill that is still with me today. So, today I share with all of you the words that our Founding Fathers, imperfect beings that they were, came up with to set the course of our fledgling nation:
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of AmericaWhen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew ThorntonMassachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge GerryRhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William ElleryConnecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver WolcottNew York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis MorrisNew Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham ClarkPennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George RossDelaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKeanMaryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of CarrolltonVirginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter BraxtonNorth Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John PennSouth Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur MiddletonGeorgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
I hope everyone has a happy, safe, and thoughtful 4th of July!
That’s awesome, Antigone, thank you.
American colonies declare independence! All men created equal. Rights: Life, Liberty, pursuit of Happiness, Trial, Low Taxes. #unitedstates
“Nothing of importance happened today”
Allegedly King George the Third’s diary entry on July 4, 1776. I really have no idea whether or not this is true, but I always enjoy the mild humor of the situation, that he happened to put exactly that (and even bothered to write it down) on THAT day.
The Roman Republic lasted just under 500 years, before it was weakened by civil wars to the point of allowing one person to seize power and morphed into the Roman Empire. I wonder if we can hold out for the better part of three more centuries?
@violet: if you’re going to mention taxes, I don’t think you can go without the appropriate hat-nodding to everybody’s favorite old man. “‘In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
Great Britian @USA OMGWTFBBQ?
TRH
Is there a way to say that I disagree with the premise of this post without being jumped on as an America-hater? Perhaps not. But I do.
I have strong doubts that patriotism is something to be celebrated in any form. Every frigging country out there is full of folks who believe, deep down, that while their country may have problems, the fact is, their people are the best. I’ve met them in every country I’ve visited so far. Most of these countries have officially approved origin stories glorifying the uniquely brave and wise heroes who founded them, and celebrated documents full of inspirational language which the nations in question have only ever sometimes lived up to. I’m not entirely sure here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if America was currently the most insufferable in this regard. Either way, I think patriotism is a fundamentally harmful, tribal concept– perhaps one that all humans are prone to indulge in, but nonetheless, that doesn’t mean it’s good for us.
Actually, patriotism and religion are very similar in my mind. They both have advantages, in that they give us an instant feeling of community with a certain subset of the people around us, and they give us reassuring, easy answers. There is moral certitude and strength in numbers. But if we actually buy into either of them as much as their adherents claim we should, we end up shutting our brains off and refusing to listen to other points of view which just might be more moral, enriching, or conducive to survival.
Now, the Declaration of Independence is indeed an extraordinary document. It’s nice to see a country with a founding document that recognizes the fact that government rules by the consent of the governed. Trouble is, when Jefferson et al wrote “all men are created equal”, they neglected to define, precisely, what a “man” is. And so our country was founded on the backs of slaves working land plundered from the natives. And this oppression was, yes, justified by the claims that the oppressed were not full men.
It’s true that in the forward march of history, the general trend since then has been to gradually extend the rights of full manhood to various groups which had not been considered such before. But this has been the case in richer countries all over the world. Slavery (at least in name) was abolished in Britain a good three decades before the Americans did so (at least in name)– and the Brits did it without the benefit of any Founding Fathers guiding the way.
I am not meaning to suggest that 19th century Brits were better than their American counterparts. Rather that fundamentally, we are not Americans, or British, or Japanese, but just human. Patriotism is comforting the same way that cheering for your hometown team is comforting. Really celebrating July 4th the way that it’s meant to be celebrated means choosing to believe that America, as an institution, is somehow exceptional. I’m not sure this is the case. It’s just the place we Americans know the best. We know how great we can be. So we tend to end up thinking, “how could anywhere else ever really be as good as we are?”
(Don’t worry, there’s loads of people in every country out there thinking that same flawed thought right now!)
“I have strong doubts that patriotism is something to be celebrated in any form. Every frigging country out there is full of folks who believe, deep down, that while their country may have problems, the fact is, their people are the best.”
I am really, really okay with that. It makes sense. And I’m not going to argue with canadians or anybody else because they think their country is the best. They like Canadia or wherever they live for the same reasons that I like where I live: namely, it’s where I live. Home field advantage counts for quite a bit, and I know the people and the culture here well enough to be comfortable just about anywhere in this country. I’ve lived in the midwest long enough to actually get along quite well here and understand many of the nuances of the local culture, slang and euphemisms.
The point is, Patriotism is okay so long as we make the leap to understand why we are patriotic and why other people are too. Realistically, I don’t trust stupid fucking humanity to do so. (God I hope the south rises again, I’d vote to let them go, and they can take Texas with them). But I don’t think national pride is a bad thing, and I especially appreciate a holiday celebrating vital events in our national history, like when we started signing one of the most significant documents in human history.
I like America. I REALLY like what we COULD be, and I hope that we’ll see that as a nation and strive for that, going back to our roots for concepts like equality and justice and what’s fair and right. Like so many aliens in so many scifi series have said, we’ve got Great Potential, and I for one am proud of that. It’s just, I have the sense to not project my attitudes about my particular country onto others, only the generic reasons.
TRH
See, for me, I think it’s the difference between “patriotism” of “We’re so awesome and everyone else sucks” and “patriotism” of “We have some good ideals that are worth striving for and it’s okay to like where you live”. I’m speaking more of the second patriotism, and I did think I included the “we’re not perfect” in there. Hell, I even gave a shout-out to our neighbors, whom I think also have a fine country.
“Patriotism” is never going to convince me to fight a war, or kill someone, or kick someone out, but it might convince me to stay abreast of politics, learn our history (our REAL history, warts and all) and do the best to live up to our ideals.
I get the distinction you’re making. I’m not sure, in reality, that that distinction ever really gets made– it’s easy even for “smart” people to start getting swept up in the romance of patriotism.
I guess, for me, if one starts celebrating reasons why something is “great”, the automatic implicit assumption that results is that most other things like it are not so great. When America continues to be responsible for thousands, millions of murders in other countries in pursuit of its own goals, I feel like celebration of our great ideals is the wrong approach. Humility and circumspection should be in order. If our ideals are really so great, then the fact that we are in fact pursuing the opposite course with our actions in so many ways means, well, we don’t get to throw ourselves a party celebrating our ideals until we earn the privilege by living up to them a little bit more.
I get where you’re coming from, Quin, but I think if we’re constantly going “Oh, America SUCKS, we’re so terrible” we’re not going to get anything to make it better. Humility and circumspection is important, yes, but you need a positive motivation to make things work better. You need to know that there’s something valuable in working towards a better country and better world.
Actually, I think if everybody in America actually started thinking “America SUCKS, we’re so terrible”, things might actually change for the better pretty damn fast! The thing that usually makes me get depressed and powerless is the feeling that hardly anybody seems to take the real problems seriously.
Other than that, though, I absolutely agree with every other sentence you just said! Only, I draw a different conclusion about patriotism’s utility as a means to achieve that positive motivation you mention. It’s undeniably a motivational force, but in the long run it fosters a home-country-centric viewpoint of the world, and self-censorship of any ideas which might not work to the strategic advantage of the home country.
An example: The fact that, even now, mainstream U.S. progressives like Matthew Yglesias discuss Iraq in terms of American strategic success or failure (currently the emotion seems to be success), rather than as as an illegal occupation which has killed more people than it is humanly even possible to fathom. This situation, obviously, is not good for America, nor for the world.
In other words: patriotism says, “What’s best for America is best for the world.” What I’m suggesting is, “What’s best for the people of the world is best for America”. Is there a word for that concept?
Although I haven’t changed my ultimate position on anything, Antigone, I’d just like to acknowledge that there’s something about my directly preceding comment which seems a bit off. I can’t put my finger on it, though. Maybe you’ll figure it out for me.
(Since tone is hard to read sometimes, I should clarify that this isn’t sarcasm. I really do feel like there’s some flaw in there.)
Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy”.[1] In practice, it refers to the advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what they perceive as their country’s national interests, and colloquially to excessive bias in judging one’s own country as superior to others – an extreme type of nationalism.
Patriotism is love of and/or devotion to one’s country. The word comes from the Greek patris.[1] However, patriotism has had different meanings over time, and its meaning is highly dependent upon context, geography and philosophy.
Nationalism refers to an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation.[1] It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation. While there is significant debate over the historical origins of nations, nearly all specialists accept that nationalism, at least as an ideology and social movement, is a modern phenomenon originating in Europe.[2] Precisely where and when it emerged is difficult to determine, but its development is closely related to that of the modern state and the push for popular sovereignty that came to a head with the French Revolution in the late 18th century. Since that time, nationalism has become one of the most significant political and social forces in history, perhaps most notably as a major influence or cause of World War I and especially World War II with the rise of fascism, a radical and authoritarian nationalist ideology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingoism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalism
I really think that the US focuses more on Jingoism than patriotism – calling it patriotism is a perversion of the word.