Revolutionary Ideas
Let’s talk about the American Revolution. On our summer sojourn to New England, we visited numerous sites of importance during the Revolutionary War. This was all new to John, who’d been born in the south. Not to me, who grew up in a town where iron was mined to created the giant chain strung across the Hudson River at West Point to bar the British fleet from sailing any further north. What sparked our colonists to break free from England?
Discontent.
I had forebearers living in New England. They’d come to the New World to escape oppression and seek better opportunities for their lives. These early immigrants had no desire to be ruled by a king, or to be forced into a state religion. The persecuted Huguenot farmers in my family sought out land west of the Hudson River. A separate branch of my family settled in colonial Rhode Island and took up commerce. They were well off for their time. I’ve dug a little ways back, but not far enough to determine a Mayflower connection. But I did find a surname that resonated across the colonies when discontent was growing. Perhaps one of his brothers, or a cousin, ties us across time, but the man himself had no offspring.
John Locke was a noted political philosopher of his era. When the monarchy flexed its power, he fled England for Holland and published several treatises anonymously, hoping to influence the educated with a clearer discussion of what government means.
I haven’t thought about him in years, not since I determined he wasn’t an ancestor. But his name and quotes from his writings have been popping up lately in newsletters I subscribe to, so I dug in. Published in 1690, Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government” is a fascinating read. It starts with musings on the natural laws and rules of war, then moves on to monarchy and commonwealth, outlining how citizens will find themselves acting and reacting to laws, legislators, judges, and an executive power.
Read the full text yourself at The Gutenberg Project
I was delighted to find Locke’s views on families, women, and governance were what I’d call practical. Sensible. Level-headed. In fact, some credit him as the “father of Liberalism.”
Liberal is not a dirty word in my book. Nor is conservative. But obstructionist is. Along with aggressor.
I’ll pull more of Locke’s quotes:
“But force, or a declared design of force, upon the person of another, where there is no common superior on earth to appeal to for relief, is the state of war: and it is the want of such an appeal gives a man the right of war even against an aggressor, tho’ he be in society and a fellow subject.”
By the “right of war,” Locke means the right to strike back directly when there is no other alternative. Personally, individually.
“And hence it is, that he who attempts to get another man into his absolute power, does thereby put himself into a state of war with him; it being to be understood as a declaration of a design upon his life: for I have reason to conclude, that he who would get me into his power without my consent, would use me as he pleased when he had got me there, and destroy me too when he had a fancy to it.”
At this moment in American history, the destruction is real. This wrecking ball in the form of an unelected billionaire overseeing mass firings of federal workers with zero justification, threatening them with bullying emails, and gloating about it in public while dancing around with a chainsaw is sickening.
For those of you reading this who applaud this approach to “government efficiency” effort, I have nothing more to say to you other than I find that attitude towards fellow human beings, men and women with families, mortgages, and a need for health insurance, as callow and despicable as those who gloat over illegal immigrants being hauled off in chains. For show. For theater. For laughs. Because that’s what’s being circulated online. Should we audit agencies and ferret out waste? Absolutely. But that’s not what’s happening here.
The moment Elon Musk stepped onto the scene with his hit squad of programmers, I reached out to my senators in horror. I was a government IT contractor who’d uncovered fraud during one of my assignments. There are protocols to follow, and zero of them – starting with security clearances and proper treatment of data – are being followed by this team set up by Musk, a bunch of young people with no background in government computing systems or how agencies work. Or of those legacy programming languages I was an expert in.
My legislators’ response to my concerns? None. Instead, I started getting their newsletters bragging about how wonderful this all is. I marked them as spam.
Things have devolved at a dizzying pace on our national stage, obviously intentionally. I am disgusted. And I bet a lot of you are too. I don’t talk politics often. But I am seething over it all at this point. From the military to national parks to the U.N, what’s going on is absolute madness. It must be stopped. For your health and sanity – for the country’s health and sanity – and mine.
Make your voice heard. Other than that first burst of outrage I’ve been quiet since this began, and I regret that. I won’t shout often, but I will shout when I feel the need.
A parting thought from Locke, on how history always repeats itself.
“For he that thinks absolute power purifies men’s blood, and corrects the baseness of human nature, need read but the history of this, or any other age, to be convinced of the contrary. He that would have been insolent and injurious in the woods of America, would not probably be much better in a throne.”
