Declaration Day

This is the day when folks in the good old U.S. of A. stage parades, grill and consume all kinds of meat, go to festivals, and scare dogs by setting off fireworks of all shapes and sizes.

The occasion is the 249th anniversary of the release of a little document called the Declaration Of Independence, which changed life as we knew it — and by “we,” I mean the people who were alive in 1776. I am apparently considered old now, but I’m not that old.

That little document made a number of statements that shifted people’s perspectives in significant ways. For one thing, it asserted that human rights were not a human invention — that things like the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were God-given and self-evident, not something granted by a king, a congress or a constitution.

It even suggested that if those manmade institutions fail to protect those God-given rights, the people have a right to dissolve those institutions and form a new government that will.

Holy moley, what a concept.

So saying, the signers of the Declaration broke off ties from the tyrannical British government and established 13 new nations that organized a loose confederation called the United States of America.

Great Britain, as all centralized governments are, was not inclined to give up power willingly, and so it waged war against this upstart confederation, but the spirit of liberty was more powerful than the spirit of tyranny, and the new states won the war.

After a few years some members of the loose confederation grew nostalgic for the tyrannical central government, and they persuaded their colleagues to form a new central government and bind their partners under a constitution. Leaders who were leery of the idea lobbied to amend this new arrangement to clarify that the reorganized government still could not infringe on those God-given rights, and they included a couple of clauses that any powers not specifically designated to this “federal” government were retained by the people and their respective states.

I could go on from there and discuss how the more central government grew and metastasized into something the signers of the Declaration might not recognize — or maybe they would recognize it and say something to the effect of, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

But July 4 is the day we celebrate the fact that wise people once endorsed the idea that we are created equal, endowed by the Creator with rights that must not be alienated, including the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — not to mention the rights to assemble, to say and publish what we please, to worship in the manner that we choose, to own weapons, and all of the other rights that God has given us, and woe to anyone who would dare to re-establish tyranny across this beautiful land.

I’m proud to live in the country where those concepts were first declared and, if you listen very hard, sometimes are still practiced here and there.

and the day after

The fear mongers were working overtime in the days leading up to Tuesday’s election, which is the last election in Wisconsin until next April, thank the Lord. We are theoretically free for awhile from commercials proclaiming what a dirtbag such and such a candidate is.

I remembered H.L. Mencken’s warning about imaginary hobgoblins as all this transpired: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” Little has changed since he wrote that passage in 1918. So many of us are still alarmed and clamorous to be led to safety, and the practical politician is still eager to lead us not to safety but astray.

It’s easy to forget that freedom does not depend on any government actions — in fact, government by definition acts to restrict or curtail freedom, or otherwise why would it be called government? The right ruler of any human is the person s/he sees in the mirror. No one has a greater stake in your well-being.

Mencken is often misquoted — and at one time I was one of the culprits — as saying that “all” of his hobgoblins are imaginary, rather than “most.” Some of the hobgoblins that practical politicians warns about are indeed real, not the least of which are those very politicians. We are besieged with political ads that warn an opponent is a threat to safety and well-being if not democracy itself. It behooves one to consider that all of these ads are correct and that none of the alternatives are fit to run our lives.

To the extent that they stay in their lane, keep the streets paved and plowed and defend our shores, Leviathan employees are useful public servants. When they stray into micromanaging our lives, as they inevitably do, they become very real hobgoblins.

Election campaigns have become more of a blood sport than a competition to determine who is more qualified to run the apparatus of government — and the sport takes our eyes off the question of whether the apparatus of government is even necessary.

I try not to have a stake in the outcome because I often don’t have one anyway. I am usually a disinterested observer, like a World Series between the Washington Nationals and Texas Rangers. Neither team engages my passions.

And so when fear mongers start trying to stir up emotion, I remind myself to refuse to be afraid, free myself from the shackles of fear, and dream of a better tomorrow.

Connected and simultaneously alone

What have we lost since we all began carrying little TV sets around in our pockets? A little attention span — maybe a lot of attention span — an ability to sit and think and contemplate — an ability to enjoy being alone and quiet. Entertainment and knowledge and all the rest at our fingertips — we are connected and simultaneously all alone in our little hive mind — we are the Borg. We have been assimilated. Resistance is futile.

Orwell was prescient, except the telescreen is a pocket device, not a TV on the wall.

I confess I do enjoy being able to call up an old song seconds after remembering it. I knew the world had changed in 1999 (I think it was) when I helped our sports editor find the season stats for the third-leading scorer on the Eastern Illinois women’s basketball team in less than two minutes. We figured this internet thing was going to change our lives. Little did we know!

If — or perhaps when — the web ever collapses, generations will be lost, anxious and confused.

Interesting words: A web is a trap spiders use to capture their meals. A screen is something that blocks our view.