Somewhere in the millennium of the Greek democracies and the Roman power and politics, was the seed of US philosophy and political structures. Our founding fathers were motivated mostly by Greek ideas about politics born of democracy and nation building born of Roman power. Jefferson was keen on Roman legal strengths more than the others perhaps and maybe this is why he is often seen as the president that moved America to the west at a rapid pace.
The other founders were very well versed in democratic ideas, more so from Greece. And it fell to them to craft together our current forms of government and political culture. They took their efforts seriously and used every bit of knowledge about the good and the bad of other cultures to craft the Constitution.
A student of those times and more specifically the U.S. Constitution looks at current culture in the U.S. and has to wonder what happened and where are we going? There are at least 3 fault lines when it comes to this subject of the constitution. The framers of this document started from a logical and pragmatic belief that good government could be had, at least for a season. Adam’s was not so sure it would last very long, but he seemed to enjoy his pragmatic pessimism in humanity. Hamilton considered it would go on for longer if we just gave it the right balance and checks and distribution of power. Washington wanted to make sure that no one could become King and tyrant and the rest took on lawyerly like roles in just trying to get all the delegates to agree on the document we call the Constitution.
I wonder quite a bit, perhaps too much, as to what they would think of what we have done with their work? Let’s say, we had another Constitutional Convention Checkup and Catchup meeting. What would we argue about and rack our brains over as to what they predicted would happen and what warnings or guidance they might give us today for the the further health of the Constitution as it guides our country into the future.
On an individual level, we are all and each a constituent being served by and serving for that document. We are knowingly or in many cases unknowingly bound by it. It still is the supreme law of the land. We ive within the framework of those laws.
That can be troubling to so many today because they simply don’t agree with those laws, or the interpretation of those laws. As long as they can go on living by ignoring those laws, that seems to work for them. But when those laws cut across their path, they take umbrage and discontent with those laws and disconnect with our society rises up. We all feel that discontent around us and we may not know why its there or how to address it, but we know its around us.
Will we basically ignore the ethos of the founders and replace it with a more current ethos or will we go back and rediscover what they accomplished and more importantly why they accomplished so much. I don’t think our current culture is set up to go back and learn from that history. Such a pedantic exercise seems unnecessary at best and pointless or even destructive at worst.
There is a wonderful garden in Israel called Neot Kedumim. It means something like taking the old and restarting it, refreshing it to move forward with the new. The garden takes the old lifestyle of the ancient Bible naturalists and people that lived so close to the land and harvest and try to open up those principles into new policies for life today.
To me, Principles never change. It’s the Policies that change. The Preferences change over night sometimes, Policies take a bit longer to change and Principles remain the same. We rarely see major western countries change their principles such as freedom and liberty. But the policies and preferences and procedures are all up for grabs. And in some cases, the principles are in jeopardy as well.
This then, this 4P ethos of using these Principles to give us a good foundation for the other Ps is at stake right now, right here. We are being moved along by currents and winds that are taking us into the unknown. We would do well to reexamine how we got this far and where we should be going, not where the current weather patterns are taking us. Perhaps a trip to Greece is in order, virtual or otherwise.