The American Republics
The British Monarchy, The Papacy, European ethnic ideas and The United States of America tend to be based upon an attachment to continuity, even where change is the actual order of their operation. They constantly deny any breach with the past, and contain within their supporters, usually enough people of emotional attachment or intellectual subtlety to elide the clear and obvious punctuations of their history.
The USA, in particular, is interesting as it has so evidently had different existences and regimes under its title. The Articles of Association, the workings of the continental congress, and the confederation, are today almost forgotten by legal scholars. The existence of a basically new republic after the constitutional amendments of the 1790s and 1860s, and again after the new deal, is often denied.
This sort of thing has consequences. In American law classes, some of which I have sat in as an observer on various trips, shocking portrayals of the Declaration of Independence as some sort of stand-alone document that founded a tradition upon which there was or is complete agreement mix with the usual legal misunderstanding of constitutions or history. A more informed, and more humble, approach to citizenship that understood the contingency of things might deliver a more subtle and human approach to governance and to the motives of those in political systems.
Yet, as Galileo noted differently, clearly the thing does move. I was very interested by this new article in salon.com called 'Obama and the rise of the fourth republic'. I think America has been more than seriously flirting with Empire in the past ten years. I don't like that, and it saddens me. Empires bring lies, delusion, violence, fear and death, and they are guaranteed to end in tears. So the possibility of a refounded republic is yet another uplifting thing that happened this week. Check Michael Lind's piece out, even if you disagree. It isn't as deep as it should be, but salon isn't an online bookstore and I think he may be right.
The British Monarchy, The Papacy, European ethnic ideas and The United States of America tend to be based upon an attachment to continuity, even where change is the actual order of their operation. They constantly deny any breach with the past, and contain within their supporters, usually enough people of emotional attachment or intellectual subtlety to elide the clear and obvious punctuations of their history.
The USA, in particular, is interesting as it has so evidently had different existences and regimes under its title. The Articles of Association, the workings of the continental congress, and the confederation, are today almost forgotten by legal scholars. The existence of a basically new republic after the constitutional amendments of the 1790s and 1860s, and again after the new deal, is often denied.
This sort of thing has consequences. In American law classes, some of which I have sat in as an observer on various trips, shocking portrayals of the Declaration of Independence as some sort of stand-alone document that founded a tradition upon which there was or is complete agreement mix with the usual legal misunderstanding of constitutions or history. A more informed, and more humble, approach to citizenship that understood the contingency of things might deliver a more subtle and human approach to governance and to the motives of those in political systems.
Yet, as Galileo noted differently, clearly the thing does move. I was very interested by this new article in salon.com called 'Obama and the rise of the fourth republic'. I think America has been more than seriously flirting with Empire in the past ten years. I don't like that, and it saddens me. Empires bring lies, delusion, violence, fear and death, and they are guaranteed to end in tears. So the possibility of a refounded republic is yet another uplifting thing that happened this week. Check Michael Lind's piece out, even if you disagree. It isn't as deep as it should be, but salon isn't an online bookstore and I think he may be right.
Comments