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I could not in good conscience have a post which doesn’t quote some scientist from centuries past. So let me begin with it instead of beating around the bush towards it: Isaac Newton once said “If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” Now, he is perhaps the largest giant of them all, yet he was still humbled all his life by that work which preceded him and allowed him to be a genius.
Today, we Americans experience comfortable lives of comparative luxury free of strife. I by no means intimate that we are, or even, ought to be free of struggle—for struggle only urges us to be a better nation—nor that we all live in the same degree of comfortability. We all know the fights that are being fought in our country—ones which are good and purposeful and others which are misguided. And we all know the disheartening disparities between our best off and our most unfortunate—disparities to the point of obscenity. Still, when these issues and poverty are weighted against much of the world, the contrast is stark.
I also do not want to be mistaken as believing that simply because somewhere else has it worse, we ought not to do anything. It is true that America doesn’t have regular coups, economic catastrophes, or dictatorial regimes. Tyranny may exist in its most repugnant forms in other corners of the world, but we don’t have to stomach injustice of a more palatable form.
With those qualifiers in mind, let me reiterate what I said: Americans experience comfortable lives of comparative luxury free of strife. This is in no small part a result of our republican government, which has existed for a remarkable two and a half centuries. Historically, democracies had come and they had gone, inevitably falling into tyranny. But ours was based on new developments from Enlightenment thinking, founded upon a Constitution, jealously protective of human dignity. A new country was formed that unusually placed responsibility in the hands of a multitude of individuals, one which was not eager to sacrifice its citizens to the whims of society yet accommodating of truth and the greater good for society nonetheless. All the historical qualifiers to these ideals are not to be ignored, but it would be difficult to argue that America has not represented a uniquely proud tradition of democratic governance, respectful individualism, and liberal thought.
And yet, to this day, we call our country an experiment, a test. The experiment we have been conducting has spread its roots throughout the world to varying degrees of similarity and success. It seems unfathomable that our system could ever fail, and if it did, then we assure ourselves that at least democracy would prevail elsewhere.
History has a habit of sneaking up on those who think they have transcended it. Surely the Romans at the height of their empire could not imagine the barbaric forces that would ultimately destroy it. How could the Chinese possibly fathom that the faraway and puny British Isles could ever force upon them a century of humiliation? Why would the Soviet Union think that their iron authoritarian grip could ever be loosened to the point of collapse? How could it be that the people of America, or even the entire world, could ever forget the fruits of democracy that have thrived and delivered liberty and happiness?
Perhaps they won’t. Maybe democracy is indeed a lasting feature of humanity from today to its last breath. Maybe it will outlast all authoritarian governments. But I am not willing to take that assumption so lightly. Show me where in the sky it is mandated that humanity is promised a happy ending, and I will join in the uninhibited joy of that promise. However, if history can point to anything in particular, it is that people all too often grow comfortable with what they have and are willing to share with demagogues.
Our Founding Fathers did well to leave a ship of government which was easy to navigate and which was sturdy. But if our country fails to pick helmsmen wisely—ones who won’t fall asleep at the rudder—the strongest ship in the world could not protect it from dashing upon dangerous rocks. Forgive the metaphor, but take a moment and ask who it is that we have picked for our captain’s quarters? Is it someone who is so busy trying to convince the ship of mutineers that they have ignored the pirates lurking about? Is it someone that spends their days marveling at how deep the water is below the ship that they don’t spy the shore racing up to beach the vessel?
Realize I don’t speak about any one person in particular. People are emblematic of the times, and if the political, ideological, philosophical, and cultural leaders chosen are poor in quality, it reflects badly upon us who put them in power. Complacency is the sustenance of demagoguery, and the democracy which we value so dearly may, perhaps not in some distant dystopian future, unwittingly vanish. Against such a threat there is only one remedy: to step back from complacency and from the status quo to look about where we are and where we are heading. And, certainly, when we see the trend that is forming, we will realize our need to jealously guard from new unvirtuous forces our virtuous and dearest life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
Thomas Hulse is a McConnell Scholar in the class of 2023. He studies physics and political science at the University of Louisville.