The year is 1993 and the place: a small bar across the street from a ‘closed’ club that was only opening for the night to host the British Hardcore band, GBH. I was twenty-three, married and mother to a three-year-old. It was ‘date night’ with my husband, and Richmond was going old school with GBH coming to town. My husband was super excited, and we met up with a bunch of friends at the place across the street for food and drinks before the show since the club was just open for the band; no food, no drinks, no working bathroom, no running water. We were all in our twenties, mostly single and making our way in the world. I was in my senior year of college, as I had taken time off when my daughter was born. I happened to be in a class called, Modern Intellectual European History. Basically, the name was a pretentious way of describing the philosophies that gave rise to Marxism. It was a tortuous class. The book was an English translation from a Czech writer, and it was either written or translated in the most pompous, arrogant, and convoluted way possible. Now, I am a child of the Enlightenment. The Age of Reason is attractive to my logical brain. Our founders were well versed in this philosophical time, and the ideas on the nature of man, the relationship between people and the government, and the understanding of the necessity of a moral and educated society. These ideas led them to debate and analyze how and why most of human history is a story of people subjugated by corrupt and oppressive systems.
So, there I sat with a bunch of guys and chicks waiting to enter the mosh pit while we (a bunch of ‘old’ people) made fun of the ‘kids’ wearing store-bought anarchy t-shirts; simultaneously debating politics, history, and philosophy. That was how we used to have fun; have a drink and start arguing over different ideas. Obviously, this was before Cancel Culture. As usual, I found myself debating the Enlightenment ideas versus the ‘modern’ philosophers including Marx. I could not understand how anyone, including the guy I was debating could read Marx and conclude that his ideas were logical.
The fundamental core of the Age of Reason resides in the notion that rationale and logic can be utilized to solve problems. Humans through intellect coupled with morality could shape a better way of life that benefited all and not just a chosen few. Society and government were two different institutions that arose differently and had different roles and purposes. Thomas Paine distinguishes between the two in Common Sense, “Society is produced by our wants, and governments by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.”
It is through society that we can change humanity for the better, and as stated in the Declaration of Independence governments are, “… instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” to secure our inherent rights as a member of human society. Because not all humans act morally, the governments’ sole role is to secure our rights from those who may wish to subjugate us to their will. This is the ‘Social Contract’ that John Locke wrote about. We agree to pay taxes and serve our nation with the understanding that our government is responsible for and obligated to ensure each one of us is secure in our person, place, and things. And as Paine continues in Common Sense, while “…security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears the most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.”
The Constitution is our contract, our agreement with each other and the government. It is our ‘Social Contract’ that was negotiated over the summer in Philadelphia, debated State by State and debated by the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The agreement was put to the people and the vote. Concessions were made with the Bill of Rights, knowing all the while that history had not been favorable to freedom. Because whether we acknowledge it or not, the government we have is ultimately the government we consent to whether through agreement or apathy. The men and women alive during the beginning of this nation understood that future generations would have to be vigilant in order to keep what they had fought for and created. No piece of paper could restrain tyranny or corruption if the people themselves acquiesce to or ignore abuses of power. Even Ben Franklin knew the challenge ahead. When asked what the Convention had produced over that long, hot summer his cryptic response (and I paraphrase) was, a Republic if you can keep it. Franklin understood humanity.
“Governments are composed of human beings and all the frailties that humans possess are absorbed into these governments and become active within these governments. Hatred, anger, jealously, fear, greed, distrust, and the whole host of human afflictions that humans must bear, lurk just beneath the surface of civility displayed by ‘government’” John McAfee, I read this quote the other note on my feed from the Philosophy, Poetry, and Art Facebook page. These words from a modern businessman echo the understanding of the Founders.
The people we elect are no better than us. They are not smarter or wiser. They are not elected for any other reason than to secure our rights. This is the agreement made by our American ancestors that we inherited whether as a born or naturalized citizen. We have kept our part of the bargain. We pay our taxes, serve this nation, abide by the rules, and try to be good citizens. Well, at least most citizens do. The government has failed to honor their obligations, and we have allowed them to continue to ignore the Constitution with no consequences. We allow States to violate the Federal Constitution with no consequences, and even when nullified by the court we continue allow these same people to ignore the law and continue to flaunt their tyranny. This is not the first time in American history that the contact was breached. From the start America has never truly exemplified the values of its documents. We work towards a “more perfect union.” Andrew Jackson was ordered by the Supreme Court to not forcibly remove the Cherokee, yet the “Trail of Tears” still happened. President McKinley was bought by the Industrialists. Americans of Japanese descent were force into internment camps. When we are silent, we consent. The elites in power see the people as the ‘Undesirables’, ‘the Deplorables’, the unwashed masses. Those violating our rights follow the ideas of another philosopher from the Age of Reason, but with very different ideas of oppression. Thomas Hobbes reiterated the justification of thousands of tyrants throughout human history. Humans needed an absolute single ruler wielding unquestionable authority for the “good of the people.’ He was just another pretentious elitist who would have fit right into the modern left. He viewed humans as stupid and incapable of living in a democratic society. Humans needed a single powerful ruler to tell them how to live for the benefit of all. We, as a nation, have bought into this philosophy more and more. So many want to tell us how we need to live. We are promised the ‘Myth of Security’ if only we would give up our selfish desire for freedom. We don’t care enough about our fellow man, because if we did, we would change the way we speak, what we buy, what we wear, what we think, and of course how we protect and defend ourselves. We just cannot be trusted for the good of the world and to save the planet. Logic, reason, and rationale are not in the wheelhouse of the average, dimwitted person. The agreement we came to in 1791 no longer works, it must be nullified. America and the world have changed. We have now evolved past the antiquated ideas in the Constitution. These are the actual beliefs of tyrants through the ages, and what we all are fighting against. Americans need to discuss and rediscover the philosophies behind our nation to truly understand ourselves and the nature of freedom itself.
We have allowed the government to fail to meet its obligations. We have consented to allow the corruption to grow. Sitting at the table so long ago little did I know as I was wiping up the beer spilled on me by the guy arguing for Marxism, that thirty years later I would look back and wonder how so many Americans have been scammed to believe the lies and distortions Hobbes and Marx peddled. I know that most of America is finally awakening. I know that most Americans don’t want any of this nonsense. What America needs is to see with clarity is that this is the eternal struggle between freedom and oppression, and even if we win in my lifetime the struggle will go on until humanity ends itself. But ironically, we can look to our northern cousins in Canada to see our founders’ ideals sparking the flame of freedom. As usual, it is the common man who leads the charge. Canadians are showing us what “consent to be governed” really means. It is us; the truck driver, the farmer, the nurse, the stocker, the plumber, the builder, the gunsmith, the regular people working every day. We all work hard to pay our bills, raise our kids, plan for the future, and maybe go to show once in a while who truly have the power. The Canadians are an example of our own ideals. While they have definitely been under more pressure than many of us during the Pandemic, we cannot allow our voices to be silenced by fear, apathy, or resignation. We still have the power to hold our public servants accountable while forcing them to abide by their side of the contract. Civil disobedience is still our strongest tool, if we are brave enough to live by the ideals, we claim to hold dear. The infringement on our rights will stop when we choose to not consent. Our ideas are winning, otherwise they wouldn’t being trying so hard to stop us. Stay strong and fearless. We owe our descendants nothing less. Oh, and by the way, I won the argument that night in 1993, and I will win again today.
Do We Consent?