The word semiquincentennial is not likely to catch on—it’s too hard to say—but it means the 250th anniversary. For the USA, that happens next year, because we count our birthday from one of the most remarkable documents issued in the history of man: the Declaration of Independence.
That alone is notable. We don’t date our birth from the Articles of Confederation, the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, or back much earlier to the landing on Plymouth Rock. No, we date it from the time when some men representing everyone said that we are now independent from the British empire. We can and will govern ourselves.
The Americans did not want a war with Britain and they knew that such a declaration would likely provoke a wider one. Like all wars, this one war was a disaster, giving rise to death and inflation and traumatizing the happy life that most people were living at the time. On the other hand, the trauma of war forged a new national identity.
It is called a revolution but it was different from the later French case—or the many in British history—because it was not merely an attempt to replace the current government with a new one, much less start history anew. It is sometimes called a “conservative revolution” because the purpose was restorative. The colonies simply wanted the right to live as they had come to expect, without the ravages and exploitations that come with being subject to the British Crown.
That said, the document was certainly not lacking in ideals. Oddly, these ideals came from the British philosopher John Locke and his “Second Treatise on Government.” Entire sections of this book came to be paraphrased in the Declaration in much more poetic and memorable form.
The Declaration said: “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.”
It’s hard at this stage of history to recapture the sheer radicalism of the above passage. It sums up the whole of political science and ethics as it pertains to politics. The author Thomas Jefferson replaced Locke’s phrase “Life, liberty, and property” with “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” because of the long confusion over the meaning of property, which, in the British case, was compromised by Royal grants of privilege that the Americans rejected. Here we simply embrace freedom and opportunity, which of course is inclusive of property rights but broader.
Remember that at the time, many Americans held slaves. And yet here was Jefferson proclaiming all men to be equal in rights. For this reason, and it was a very good one, many suspected that Jefferson was a secret abolitionist. He was indeed. Eventual emancipation was already baked into the fabric of what America is all about. It took too long to happen and the horrible war that brought it about should have never taken place but we eventually got there.
My first time traveling outside the United States I had a sudden shock—an obvious revelation and one that is probably only surprising to Americans—that we are not the only country in the world and the only culture that is robust, meaningful, and contributes to human flourishing. Any foreign person reading those sentences knows exactly what I mean: Americans really do think this way, and it is embarrassing.
As time has gone on, however, and I’ve travelled the world many times, I’ve come to realize just how influential and important America really is to world flourishing. I do not just mean the military empire which breeds much resentment. I mean the ideals as articulated above. Most everyone in the world knows the text. The notion of human rights has animated politics ever since, which is striking to consider since no such thing existed in the ancient world.
I hear often that what happens in America very often foreshadows what happens around the world. This is why so many people today are looking at what is happening in the current renewal taking place. You can agree with everything Trump is doing or disagree with it all but there is no question in anyone’s mind that dramatic changes are taking place.
The main theme of change at the 250th anniversary is the restoration of the American spirit. That includes free speech, transparency in government, rights for the people, limits on the excesses of power, free enterprise in economics, human choice in religion, freedom in education and health care, and the right to pursue happiness in general.
Hardly anyone alive in any country would disagree that all these ideas need a reboot at the end of these very confusing times. We need to rediscover the foundations of civilized life, and recapture the spirit that made America great.
I was young during the bicentennial celebrations in 1976. I see now why they were so significant. The upheavals of the previous decade—the burning cities, the assassinations, the draft riots, and finally the impeachment of the president—were finally behind us. There were existing struggles at the time such as gas lines, inflation, and economic stagnation (not to mention bad fashion). All that said, 1976 did certainly become a turning point in U.S. history.
The 250th anniversary can be a turning point too. Perhaps this country is not destined to go the way of so many empires before (Mayan, Aztec, Portuguese, Spanish, Habsburg, British) by ending in bankruptcy, demoralization, and loss of influence. The irony in this case is that the American cultural and ideological empire can only be preserved by reining in its military and national-security empire. That seems to be the plan, insofar as I understand it.
Will it work? There is some hope that it will. In any case, we are all enormously fortunate to be alive to watch the unfolding of these events. The beauty of what is happening in the United States right now is that it is not like political revolutions in many countries that lack direction and purpose beyond a struggle for control.
The current goings-on in the United States are about the restoration of ideals. Just as in 1776, we stand on the edge of a precipice. We hope to preserve what is great about this country by rallying around certain principles. Thomas Jefferson took the American experience and framed it into a philosophy, one that has swept the world and remains the dominant orthodoxy of understanding. Our job is simply to recall and make it real again.
Yes, there is every reason to be proud to be an American. but with that must come the humility to recognize that this country can be “more perfect.” The pathway there is through a deeper understanding of the Founding, which centered on the rights and powers of the people themselves. That’s the theme and the goal, not to create utopia but to re-establish the best-possible framework for people to live their best lives.
