Returning Our Roots: We the People!
For the past several months, I’ve spent a great deal of time observing the way people are behaving toward one another. I’ve witnessed people getting angry at others in Walmart for not wearing a mask, and I’ve seen people chastising those individuals who have chosen to wear a mask. I’ve watched news reports showing people burning towns, looting department stores, and tearing down statues. I’ve seen posts on social media where people are being threatened with bodily harm for engaging in their First Amendment right to freedom of speech. I’ve also seen lifelong friends end friendships because of differing political beliefs. In short, I’ve witnessed people just being plain ole’ fashioned mean to one another.
Bad behavior isn’t anything new. In fact, there are a multitude of examples of hateful behavior dating back to the beginning of time. What is surprising to me, however, is that after centuries of living together, humans still haven’t learned how to get along. Over the past 250 years humans have achieved some truly remarkable milestones. For example, cars, planes, and trains allow us to travel anywhere in the world; rockets allow for space travel, including a trip to the moon; the internet allows us to communicate with one another at any time of day or night, from anywhere in the world, by voice, text, email or facetime; and Amazon allows us to shop for almost anything without ever leaving the comfort of our own home – by the way, thank you, Amazon. Yet, we still can’t find a way to live with one another in a peaceful and loving fashion?
There are a lot of theories that discuss this phenomenon, but I believe what we’re currently witnessing is a war between the 17th century political philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Hobbes held a very pessimistic view of man. Specifically, he believed that while men are rational beings they are motivated solely by their own self-interests that ultimately conflict with one another, leading to chaos that too often result in violence and even death. Hobbes’s believed that humanity’s natural condition is a state of perpetual war, fear, and amorality, and the solution to this problem is for man to enter into a social contract that allows a sovereign person or entity to be responsible for the safety and well-being of everyone. In doing so, man will be able to live the selfish life that is instinctively desired while allowing a sovereign entity to rule society.
Locke had more faith in man and God than did Hobbes, which resulted in a worldview that was much more optimistic than Hobbes’. In particular, Locke believed that men are by nature free and equal with certain rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and property, and that these rights are independent of the laws of any particular society. Locke recognized, however, that men need one another to survive in this difficult world so an unwritten social contract is utilized whereby people conditionally transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better ensure the stable, comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property. Since governments exist by the consent of the people in order to protect individual rights and promote the public good, governments that fail to do so can be resisted and replaced with new governments. If these concepts sound familiar it’s because they were later incorporated into the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
So, what does this mean for the United States? When looking at today’s society, it’s certainly easy to understand why Hobbes was so pessimistic about man, especially given the mayhem in urban cities across the U.S., the increase in the number of abortions performed each year, and the corruption that runs rampant within our governmental system. Having said that, I always bet on America – a nation that is steeped in beauty and strength and united in principle and purpose.
Our Founding Fathers have provided us with the one tool our great nation needs to prevail – a written Constitution, which not only supplies us with the rule of law but also a government system that establishes distinct separation of powers which provide necessary checks and balances. Additionally, the Constitution gives all powers to the people, except those which, by their consent, the people delegate to government. So, in the end, it’s up to us – We the People – to turn things around. This isn’t the first time that America has experienced tumultuous times, and each time we’ve come out the other end stronger. By and large, Americans are resilient, kind, hard-working, and intelligent patriots who love this great nation, but we need to work together to bridge the divide.
