Liberty: How America Became Great

Repent America. Atone for your sins.

Repent America. Atone for your sins. Confess to the many crimes against humanity you have perpetrated, at home and abroad. That’s the thrust of what American youth hear in the schoolrooms and college classes they attend. That’s the view from the Ivory Tower. It filters down from there to every profession charged with spreading ideas. Here’s the charge. While America proclaimed the vaunted principles of Liberty and Equality, she hypocritically violated those principles from the start. Specifically, she denied the most basic civil and human rights to African Americans, whether slave or “free,” women, industrial workers, Native American tribes and newly arriving immigrant populations.

There was no institutionalized discrimination against immigrants (i.e., by the gov’t; new immigrant groups were discriminated against by the earlier arriving groups: English against French, both against Italian, all three against blacks, all four against hispanics, and so on.

The assault on America is embodied in the woke, progressive commitment to CRT, ESG and DEI.

The assault on America is embodied in the woke, progressive commitment to CRT, ESG and DEI. They add up to saying (1) America is as racist as ever, (2) We must return to a primitive way of life to avoid (an imaginary) climate calamity and (3) We should dispense with merit and apportion jobs and benefits according to race, gender, or sexual orientation (but exclude any dissenting. or politically incorrect views and claims).

America’s detractors are predisposed to see not millions of individuals striving to better their condition, but social classes locked in perpetual conflict. Oppressors and oppressed, exploiters and exploited, that’s all America’s critics can see. For them, that’s all there is. But, that “narrative” is woefully misguided. There is so much more for them to see if only they would look. And there certainly are common interests and a uniform national interest on which everything else depends. That interest was ably spelled out in the nation’s founding demand: Liberty and Justice for all.

No, it isn’t wrong to point out how the nation’s founding principles were compromised and undermined from the start and for so long afterwards. The past was a brutal and cruel place, in many respects. What America’s academic and media critics don’t point to is (1) how historically unprecedented the founders’ invocation of those principles were, (2) the remarkable progress the country has made in realizing all that those principles promised, and (3) that it was precisely those principles, proclaimed over and over by courageous Civil Rights and Women’s Rights leaders, that made progress toward real equality possible. Martin Luther King had a dream, “that one day this nation would live out the meaning of its creed, that all men are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights including Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” And after launching the Women’s Rights Movement at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention in upstate New York, Elizabeth Cady Stanton recalled Jefferson’s July 4th Declaration, affirming:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, That all men and women are created equal and endowed with certainly unalienable rights . . . ” Yes, it took eons for these great Americans to have their hopes realized, but it was the nation’s first principles that accompanied every mile post of progress the country passed on her never-completed journey to realizing true Liberty, Equality and Justice for all.

There’s something else. How can a man or a country hope to hold onto something it fears it is losing, if he or it doesn’t appreciate what allowed it to emerge, in the first place? To “Make America Great Again,” it would be helpful to know what exactly made her Great in the first place. Exactly what is it that is slipping away? What was and still is so exceptional about the USA?

The concept of culture is highly abstract, but real.

The concept of culture is highly abstract, but real. It subsumes the values, traditions and institutional relationships that obtain in any time or place. American culture is truly like no other. It begins with the idea of freedom. Even though so many productive and accomplished Americans are paying upwards of 50% in combined federal, state and local income taxes, property, payroll, sales, utility and capital gains taxes, most don’t really feel like they’re half-slave/half-free. Freedom is theirs, for they are free to hold dearest the things that are nearest to them. (1) family (we “come home for the holidays”), (2) friendships (ties born of shared aims and interests, mutual care and the several levels of love), faith (on one devotional level or another and owing to a universal tolerance for all creeds and customs), (4) good fortune (for now, call it financial security), and (5) their freedom to live and let live. From the country’s birth, Americans have deemed themselves free to choose the values they will pursue, the traditions they will keep and the associations they will form. They lay claim to a precious “sphere of privacy.”

This is the axle around which American life revolves. People can certainly be public-spirited and participate in public affairs. It’s a free country, after all; but the business of life is at its base a purely private affair. This does not make individuals isolated atoms colliding like so many billiard balls. From the start, America could be called “a nation of joiners,” forming unions for every imaginable cause, purpose and pursuit under the sun.

Now, a nation of individuals mostly pursuing their personal aspirations must have expectations. And what Americans could expect is something no former society or civilization had managed to offer, a steady improvement in the conditions of daily life. For most of mankind’s history (and in much of today’s world), life has been a tragic affair, offering little hope for improvement. Untold generations labored from sunup to sundown merely to provide themselves with life’s bare necessities. Luxury and comfort were available now and again, but only for the very few, the rulers, the thieving rich, the privileged classes or armed banditti. Oppression and subjugation at the hands of neighboring armies, invading barbarian hoards or roving bands of heartless thugs pockmark every page of history’s calendar.

In America, change was the only constant. And, to an unprecedented degree (though not for all), it pointed in a single, happy direction, upward. The American Experience is unlike any other in its capacity to dramatically transform and improve the conditions of daily life. In its most immediate sense, improvement measures the progress civilizations make in coping with nature’s unavoidable challenges, e.g., her storms and tempests, seasonal extremes of heat and cold, human illness, criminal contagions, foreign invasions, sanitary hazards and, especially, scarcity, i.e., a paucity of the resources on which human life depends. For most of mankind’s history living conditions ranged from harsh to horrific. A young, self-confident America resolved to escape the trap.

Generations ago, Americans decided that the future could be far better than the present, as the present was a vast improvement over the past.

Generations ago, Americans decided that the future could be far better than the present, as the present was a vast improvement over the past. The coming Industrial Revolution held the key. Down through the decades, clever tinkerers, inventors, mechanics, engineers and scientists came up with innovative materials, processes and gadgets. The steady introduction of life-saving, labor-saving products meant a steady release from the toil and drudgery that consumed all prior generations. Mass production made it possible. Grandparents looked with astonishment as their children and grandchildren brought home furnishings and appliances, comforts and conveniences the likes of which they could not have afforded or even imagined in their youth.

Consider how different living conditions would be had the following not been invented, patented and brought to market: the wood-burning stove or elegant fireplace, the water heater, factory fan, room air conditioner or central climate-control system, indoor plumbing, bicycles and baby carriages, mass-produced furniture, off-the-rack clothing and affordable, machine-made footwear. Throw in toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, makeup and eyewear and, well, you see the point.

Just imagine what it had to feel like in the days and years after one’s neighborhood was first wired for electricity. Edison’s incandescent lamps could be installed not just on every street, turning night to light for the first time in history, but in every room of one’s home or tenement flat. Then came the many labor-saving appliances that ran off it, i.e., the refrigerator, clothes washer, a little later the clothes dryer, dishwasher, toaster oven, microwave and coffee maker. Families could now enjoy so many boredom-busting “amusements,” the rotary telephone, record player, radio, TV, desktop computer. Next came battery-powered devices, from hand-held transistor radios, to tablets to the ubiquitous smart phone that just about does it all (with apps for work and play). By the time the modern supermarket came along, putting food on the family table could be accomplished in minutes (when it was not a quick trip to a fast-food joint). In earlier periods, it was a full day of daunting toil to accomplish as much.

So many wondrous things to work for, save for, and with the invention of the mail-order catalog, send for. And somewhere along the way some creative soul decided that more expensive items (sewing machines, upright pianos and automobiles) could be happily purchased “on time.” Then came checking accounts, bank credit and debit cards, PayPal and all the innovative modes of conducting commercial transactions yet to come. Not everyone in the world enjoys these comforts and conveniences. They should not be taken for granted—or lost to those who will come after. One invention in particular is worth a special mention: the automobile.

Rise of the Middle Class, Suburban life and Leisure

Nearly nothing said middle class or so changed the American landscape as the family automobile, at least, by Henry Ford’s day. There were cars and automakers before that, but they could be afforded by only a few. By synchronizing the attachment of a diverse range of component parts to an automobile chassis moving along an assembly line, Ford could put out a car in far less time and at far less cost than any competitor. Ford introduced his affordable, reliable Model T in 1913. A decade later the auto was rolling off a Ford assembly line every ninety minutes. It could be purchased for $290, paid in full, with unlimited freedom included at no extra cost.

By 1908, there were 9,000 cars trudging along America’s weather-tossed roads. By 1913, the year Ford christened his assembly line, that number grew to one million. The next ten years saw a ten-fold increase, and by 1927 surveys counted 26 million automobiles on America’s streets and highways (one for every five living Americans).  By 1960, 60% of American households owned their own automobiles, 62% owned their own homes, and 70% enjoyed television in their own living rooms nightly. America’s Middle Classes spend about $40 billion annually just to care for their lawns.

Yet, all Henry Ford did was to ingeniously adapt a prior innovation, interchangeable parts. A century earlier, Ely Whitney realized that by separately fashioning so many locks, stocks and barrels, then assembling them in one place (Adam Smith’s division of labor idea), he could dramatically decrease the time and cost of manufacturing an item with great consumer appeal: the musket. By century’s end, Irving Singer’s precision parts became the pedal-powered sewing machines that added hours to a housewife’s day. Singer’s innovative “on-time” purchasing arrangement allowed families across America to bring one home in short order.

Henry Ford put America on wheels. In the bargain he created not just new jobs, but entirely new industries. Ford would need steel, glass, rubber, leather, eventually vinyl coverings and plastics, metal fabrication plants and assembly facilities. These had to be furnished by other men working in so many construction trades. All kinds of materials would have to be produced and shipped to Detroit’s automotive sites, and additional trucks and thousands of drivers would be needed to bring them there. Families opened filling stations and tankers delivered the new, cleaner burning fuel (gasoline, not kerosene) to every point on the map. Workers would have to eat or have a watering hole “where everybody knows your name.” Restaurants and bars could flourish requiring an even larger work force. Franchise chains and pricey advertising campaigns stoked employment rolls further. The national economy grew by leaps and bounds.

It is what a robust supply-side-driven free market looks like. Often denigrated by capitalism’s critics as “trickle down,” it actually worked every time it was tried. Like the widening waves of good fortune resulting from Bill Gates’ and Steve Jobs’ enterprising labors in our own time, men happily found work in an explosion of new and expanding occupations and enterprises. And industrialization lead to the mass production of three additional “Yankee” innovations: (1) a middle class, (2) suburban life and (3) leisure time.

Well-to-do families had been moving to the suburbs since before the Civil War. Street cars and steam locomotives made commuting to work possible. But it was the automobile that triggered the widespread move to idyllic village settings all across America. In the years following World War II, the country rapidly grew closer to the city. The chance to leave the grime, crime and frantic pace of city life and settle down in safe, open spaces appealed to millions. America became a “land of lawns.” Within a single generation, the joys and blessings of suburban life crossed the North American continent. Close enough to the city to obtain gainful employment and pay one’s bills, but situated in one’s own home with manicured lawns and country all around, what was there not to love? The price may have been the daily commute, but Americans loved their cars or could find lots to do on the train ride to and fro.  Today, America’s suburbs are filled to overflowing with a middle class made up of police officers, sanitation workers, doctors, dentists, teachers, tailors, lawyers, and long-haul truck drivers.

Suburban life, in large part, was made possible by the ingenious application of industrial processes to the task of home construction.

Suburban life, in large part, was made possible by the ingenious application of industrial processes to the task of home construction. Abraham Levitt and his sons have been called the “Henry Fords of housing.” Turning the building process into a stationary assembly line, by 1948, the Levitts were mass-producing lovely humble abodes across Long Island, NY. Completing 35 houses a day in 1948, by the 1960’s the Levitts were framing and finishing a house every fifteen minutes. They would eventually put 140,000 units on the market, as builders copied their construction practices all across the country.

For an ever-expanding middle class, items considered luxuries for one generation became absolute necessities for the next. And the devices that saved labor, also saved time. A golden Age of Leisure was born. American families enjoyed more leisure time than any other people were ever privileged to possess since first- and second century Rome. Family outings, long summer vacations in the mountains or at the seashore and specialty camps for the kids grew in popularity. There would be time for spectator sports and time to participate as Boy/Girl Scout leaders or little league coaches and referees. There was time to attend the visiting circus or concert performance, seasonal art or auto exhibition, to sign up for dance lessons, show up for Friday-night card games or just go to an opening-night movie.

Needless to say, not everyone arrived in “rags” or rose to “riches.” But in this golden land of opportunity “upward mobility” was like low-hanging fruit, right there for the picking. There were notable interruptions, periodic Panics and plunges. In the ensuing years, fear and hardship could spread. Progress could come to a grinding halt. The housing bubble that burst in September 2008 was but the latest in a long line of national calamities. Each demands closer scrutiny. But, it can’t take anything away from the long-term glide path that, by the late 20th century, made life so much freer, safer and more comfortable than it had ever before been.

It goes without saying that values worth gaining are worth keeping.

It goes without saying that values worth gaining are worth keeping. But to be kept, they must be appreciated and nurtured. Above all, men must understand what made their first appearance possible. Improvement was a value worth gaining and one well worth keeping. A firm attachment to the principle produced the highest standard of living ever recorded and brought ever greater levels of comfort to a remarkably free, diverse and inventive people. It is what American Exceptionalism promised and, for the better part of the nation’s history, incontrovertibly delivered. It’s what Americans, until recently, were able to take for granted.  But, what exactly is it that needs to be recovered? What was it that made the original achievement possible?

Hint: A nation is as great as it is free. Economic prosperity, the consequence of free, unfettered trade, is the material expression of a nation’s greatness and its greatest practical reward.

Related Posts:

1. The Case for a “Natural-Law” Humanism
2. Who Will Shift the Overton Windows?
3. Transcript: The Culture of Liberty and the Power of Fiction

   

About the Author: Dr. Jerome Huyler

Jerome Huyler, PhD, is a former assistant professor who taught courses in moral and political philosophy, intellectual history and American political thought. He is the author of Locke in America: the Moral Philosophy of the Founding Era and Everything You Have: The Case against Welfare. Dr. Huyler regularly answers questions on the social media platform, Quora.com.