(The more things change, the more they stay the same.)
As you may have noticed, crucifixions and beheadings are back in style in the Middle East. Sunnis and Shias are battling for power across the region. The Russians are taking control of neighboring states such as Ukraine. People from Central and South America are flooding across the southern border of the United States to escape violence and seek a better life.
The problems of the past are the problems of the present, and it is particularly disconcerting that the United States lost thousands of young people and spent a couple of trillion dollars to establish freedom and democracy just to have the status quo reassert itself the moment we left. To be sure, both Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are dead and gone. We built a lot of infrastructure and schools and at least temporarily ousted the Taliban and gave people a taste of freedom. But it was all fairly short-lived.
We desperately want peace. We want democracy and liberty and equality and self-determinism for everyone. But it seems that others do not share our values. Boko Haram does not want girls to be educated and so they kidnap a couple of hundred schoolgirls and threaten to sell them into sexual slavery. The Saudis and the Iranians are playing a proxy war in Syria and Iraq for control of the Middle East, and the US is trying to walk some kind of fine line between these warring power factions.
There are elections in places such as Ukraine to decide if “the people” want to be Russian or Ukrainian. There is talk of simply dividing Iraq into Kurds and Sunnis and Shias and letting them all have their space, much as there is talk of doing the same thing with Israel and Palestine.
Back in the United States the divide between our competing philosophies continues to grow as well. The expansion of our federal government and the explosion of debt and reduction of personal liberty have many people at their own breaking point. The divide between the left and right, between progressives and conservatives continues to grow deeper. The president vows to fix things with his pen and his phone and he is carrying through on his promise.
The history of the world is mainly one of absolute monarchies. Kings ruled nations and fought with each other to expand their territory and take advantage when another ruler appeared weak. Their authority came from ideas like the “divine right of kings”, or the belief that the emperor or pharaoh was an actual god himself, ruling over mere mortals.
The opinions of the citizens were rarely a consideration. Any property they controlled was ultimately the property of the monarch, as were the people themselves; his to direct and use as he pleased. A few wealthy nobles and aristocrats would sometimes have influence, and a person’s class or rank in society could make a great deal of difference in their lifestyle.
There were a few exceptions. Cyrus the Great lived from 600-530 BC and his Cyrus Cylinder is considered the oldest surviving statement of human rights. The Roman Republic existed from 509-47 BC, between the Roman Monarchs and the Roman Empire, and there was a senate and democratic/representative form of government (at least to an extent). Ashoka the Great (304-232 BC) advocated social contract ideas which he wrote on rock edicts, some of which survive today in India.
Very few ancient writers wrote of personal liberty and democracy. Plato (428-348 BC) wrote The Republic and Aristotle (384-322 BC) wrote Politics, both advocating different forms of Republican ideas. Cicero (106-43 BC) wrote De Re Publica, where he also described a simple republic. The Greek and Roman civilizations had some rudimentary ideas of liberty and democracy but they did not apply to all citizens.
With the rise of emperors in Rome and the Caliphates in the Middle East, there was not a lot of thought of individual liberty for the next thousand years. In 1100 the Charter of Liberties in Britain put a few restrictions on the king, and in 1215 the Magna Carta was signed, also spelling out a few limitations on the power of the king. These lofty ideas meant little to the average serf or peasant, struggling for their very existence.
The 15th and 16th centuries saw the introduction of ideas that would form the basis of the Age of Enlightenment and later change the nature of government around the world.
Christopher Columbus (1450-1506) discovered North America and Europeans began to populate it. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) introduced scientific methodology and had a significant role in the formation of the new world colonies. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) reintroduced social contract theory. Rene Descartes (1596-1650) advanced the idea of reason and logic as being the cornerstones of philosophy, rather than mysticism and tradition.
The English fought a Civil War (1642-1651) over the nature of their government. In 1689 the English Bill of Rights solidified the individual liberties of men and many of our founding ideas are taken from that document.
Three writers in particular had a significant impact on our founders. John Locke (1632-1704) defined the role of government as being the protection of life, liberty, and property. Montesquieu (1689-1755) discussed separation of powers and equality among men. Adam Smith (1723-1790) advanced the idea that when men freely pursue their own self-interests it is ultimately to the benefit of society.
When Washington, Jefferson, Madison and the others broke from the King and established a constitutional republic based on liberty and democracy and equality it was a radical step in the history of the planet. Human history is one of domination by what Ayn Rand refers to as Attila and the witch doctor.
Attila represents the brute force of thugs and tyrants and warlords. The witch doctor represents religion and mysticism and priests and clerics. As one looks at history prior to the 17th century it is mostly a battle of control between these two groups. The divine right of kings, whether it was Egyptian Pharaohs or Greek or Roman Gods or the Hindu deities, the idea that these were holy men or gods themselves was a big part of keeping them in power. One does not risk defying a god or demi-god.
The Power of the Catholic Church in the western world likewise cannot be denied, and since the eighth century the power of Islam to motivate and empower people has had a dramatic impact on the history not only of the Middle East but of Europe and Asia and Africa as well. Attila and the witch doctor struggle for control and also work together to battle common enemies.
The United States was founded on the rather radical idea that we would not be ruled by monarchs or religion or even the majority. We enshrined the rights of the individual in our constitution and tried to set up safeguards in our structure to protect against encroachments of those liberties. We wanted a society where men were sovereign and free from class and tyranny and where Smith’s “invisible hand“, of each man pursuing their own self-interest would rule their day-to-day interactions.
These were relatively new ideas in terms of the history of the world, as we look at the thousands of years of traditionalism and mysticism and rule by kings and clerics. The relative explosion of thought that occurred in the eighteenth century was fairly unprecedented and our founders tried to take the best ideas and use them to create this new nation.
They did pretty well. They worked hard to create a system that would limit the power of government and protect the rights of individuals. But ultimately, they failed. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan not only of the founders but of their ideas. But our current bloated and corrupt government and erosion of personal liberties are testament to the fact that the natural course of human nature has taken its toll, and much of what the founders feared and tried to prevent is coming to pass.
The quick return of chaos and rule by warlords and clerics in the Middle East is evidence of how very difficult it is to set up a society that allows men to enjoy their freedom and exercise their personal responsibility to run their own lives. Men were conditioned for centuries to be taken care of and have decisions made for them by kings and priests and nobles and masters and they seem to crave the security of chains to the uncertainty of freedom. The fact that our republic was so successful for so long is a tribute to the wisdom of the men who created it, as well as the mindset and character of our citizens.
We need a revival of the ideas that made us successful in the first place, and a rejection of the ideas that have led us down the wrong path. I am optimistic that we can get back on the right course but it will take a lot of work and perhaps a new Enlightenment in our society. In Part 2, I will discuss what went wrong and some ideas for fixing it.
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