51吃瓜

Happy Fourth!

In the US, strangers wish each other with this greeting on this day as happened on a couple of occasions as I took my morning walk today in Washington, DC. In fact, I flew back from London two days ago to be in the nation鈥檚 capital for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the US. This is the day when American Founding Fathers adopted the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming: 

鈥淲e 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.鈥�

These were revolutionary words because Europe was then ruled by monarchs. Yes, England had experienced a civil war and the rebels had chopped off the head of on January 30, 1649. took charge and ruled the UK with an iron fist without a velvet glove. This humorless Puritan鈥檚 scorched-earth tactics in Catholic Ireland led to the death of 20% (one out of five) of the Irish population. Unsurprisingly, Cromwell鈥檚 Commonwealth did not last and the monarchy remounted the saddle of British power.

Notably, the UK adopted constitutional, not absolute, monarchy though. The British Declaration of the Right of 1689 was historic and inspired the American Declaration of Independence. To this day, the British Parliament the Bill of Rights 1689 in the following words:

鈥淭he Bill firmly established the principles of frequent parliaments, free elections and freedom of speech within Parliament 鈥� known today as Parliamentary Privilege. It also includes no right of taxation without Parliament’s agreement, freedom from government interference, the right of petition and just treatment of people by courts.鈥�

I mention 1689 because it is important to remember in this era of the 鈥渨oke mind virus,鈥� a term by Elon Musk, that the Declaration of Independence was rooted in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. Musk who coined this term also fails to realize this fact as demonstrated by his Nazi salute whilst speaking about the future of civilization.

History matters and it鈥檚 complicated

Over the years, one man more than any other has shaped my understanding of America: my co-author Glenn Carle. He is a caricature of a stereotype and, in the words of Kent Jenkins Jr., 鈥淕lenn is straight out of Central Casting 鈥� we would have to invent him if he did not exist.鈥� A Harvard Man and a Mayflower Descendant, Glenn is seeped in history and I see him as Mr. America.

For years, the two of us have discussed the idea of America, its complicated history and its tortured legacy. From the outset, the English and later European settlers had to push out the Indians, i.e. Native Americans, from their lands and slavery was a feature of American life. The controversial of The New York Times focused on this aspect of American history. Additionally, numerous historians have examined the genocide of numerous Indian tribes as the US expanded West to the Pacific Ocean. In one episode of The Dialectic, our signature podcast, Glenn and I discussed American identity from the Mayflower to 1776 and Glenn pointed out how the 1675鈥�1678 King Philip鈥檚 War set the precedent for a series of 鈥減rogressive exterminations鈥� of Indians that shaped American civilization.

Yet a fixation on American brutality by the woke mob forgets that the world was a pretty cruel place in the 17th century. In the 1618鈥�48 Thirty Years鈥� War in Europe, Catholics and Protestants butchered each other with wanton delight. Between 15% and 30% of the entire German population died in this conflict, which is higher than the 8鈥�10% figure for World War II. 

The rest of the world was not much different. Africans were enslaving each other, Arabs were enslaving Africans, the Ottoman Turks were ruthlessly expanding their empire, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty were doing the same in East Asia and so were the Mughals in India. In a nutshell, the dismissal of the American experiment on the grounds that it had elements of brutality demonstrates both historical ignorance and lack of intellectual rigor.

Unlike say the Ottomans or the Mughals, the Founding Fathers came up with a profound animating idea. They imagined a society defined by equality, liberty and democracy, which is still a seductive one for billions around the world. The words of the Declaration of Independence still resonate with us today and have inspired other declarations around the world since.

Yes, there were other democratic revolutions during this period. In The Financial Times, Simon Schama Corsican leader Pasquale Paoli who evoked liberty and happiness in 1755. The Corsican Republic lasted a mere 14 years before French troops snuffed out that democratic experiment. Ironically, the 1789 French Revolution led to a young Corsican military genius becoming not just a king but an emperor. Clearly, the French democratic experiment did not last long either and the French have a chequered post-1789 past. Whilst America still retains the very same republic of the Founding Fathers, France has the Fifth Republic. 

In a nutshell, the Fourth of July has a historical continuity that is old even by Old World standards and millions of Americans still celebrate the day with gusto through parades, barbecues and fireworks.

Anxious and divided now as in 1776 yet reasons for hope

Documentarian Ken Burns, historian Rick Atkinson and my dear friend Glenn Carle have all pointed out that the American Revolution divided communities and families. Neighbors turned on each other and, like many revolutions, the American Revolution caused a civil war. Yet the new country managed to survive and thrive.

I think of , a sumptuously delightful tale by Washington Irving, that captures how America changed dramatically in the first two decades of its existence. My father introduced me to this tale when I was a young child, but it is only now that I appreciate Irving鈥檚 masterpiece. Irving tells us that good old Rip van Winkle flees his nagging wife to the Catskill Mountains, drinks some magic potion with some strange men and falls asleep for 20 years. After sleeping through the American Revolution, he wakes up to find a land transformed.

When I moved to America, I too could sense a transformation after the 2007鈥�08 Great Financial Crisis. So, I wrote a rather gloomy piece titled 鈥淗appy Birthday America鈥� in 2013 that a close friend鈥檚 mother disapproved of deeply. She felt that Happy Fourth was not an occasion to publish such a morose piece. In that piece, I fretted about increasing inequality, worsening education and decreasing liberty in America, calling for 鈥渉onest conversations on uncomfortable issues.鈥� 

Barack Obama was president then and the hope he had promised had evaporated by the time I wrote my piece. Today, Donald Trump is president and has taken the US to yet another war in the Middle East despite promising not to do so repeatedly during his election campaigns. On the day the US is turning 250, American is close to $39.5 trillion and is rising at a record rate. A cost-of-living crisis is making the lives of ordinary Americans miserable but dysfunctional institutions are failing to ameliorate their situation. Americans are anxious and divided now just as they were in 1776 but lack animating ideas or inspiring leaders they had then.

Despite the grim realities we face today, unlike 2013, I will end on a hopeful note. As I mentioned earlier, I have just returned from London to be in Washington for the Fourth of July celebrations. These are my first as an American citizen and, for all its faults, I find America very special.

Because I have just returned from London, I cannot help but compare the US to the UK. Before I carry on, I must point out that I love the UK and adore London. Yet I cannot fail to observe that Britain today feels very much like an American colony. Everyone uses ChatGPT, Alexa, Google Maps, WhatsApp and X. Startup offices like Techspace are copies of Silicon Valley campuses with American books like The Lean Startup and Impromptu: Amplifying Our Humanity Through AI dotting their bookshelves. Alexander Karp鈥檚 Palantir has muscled its way into the British establishment despite profound misgivings of the likes of Rory Stewart and Alistair Campbell. Ironically, these two British big beasts host their podcast, The Rest Is Politics, on . As many now say, living in Britain today is like watching the Romans turn into Italians.

Culturally, London is still a magical city. My closest friends live there. The Brits continue to be well educated, witty and worldly. Hampstead Heath is probably the most pleasant neighbourhood I have encountered in the world. Yet Britain lacks the ambition, the energy and the chutzpah of America. It is for this reason that I moved across the pond.

In the summer of 2004, I flew from London to New York for my first American trip. I explored both the coasts and also drove around some of the most bewitchingly beautiful national parks of the country. This was the time of the Iraq War, which I found unnecessary and unwise. I had profound misgivings about the Global War on Terror and had critiqued George W. Bush鈥檚 Middle Eastern misadventure sharply. I found him a pale shadow of his much more impressive father. Despite not liking the politics of America, I fell in love with this continental country because more things seemed possible here than in Britain. I America a grand and glorious country, and moved here in 2008 to chart a new future.

As I write this, I am well aware that a lot is wrong with America and my work as an editor-in-chief makes me realize on a daily basis that our 鈥� is out of joint.鈥� Rising debt and increasing inflation threaten economic pain in the near future. Political polarization and institutional dysfunction seem cast in stone. Yet all is not lost. In fact, all is never lost. America still has cheap energy, extraordinary innovation and cutting-edge technology. Americans have the can-do, will-do attitude along with the get up and go others lack. And 250 years after 1776, Americans continue to celebrate the idea of America. So, Happy Fourth!

The views expressed in this article are the author鈥檚 own and do not necessarily reflect 51吃瓜鈥檚 editorial policy.