The title of the N.Y. Times’ “1619 Project” is a reference to the fact that it was in that year that the first African slaves reached the coast of what is now Virginia. The contemporary “progressive” critique of America’s past is based upon the simplistic if not appallingly arrogant assumption that those White Colonialists who came to its shores 400 years ago ought to have seen the world from their Postmodern perspective. Absurd!
In approaching this subject I am invariably reminded of the contemporary disdain directed at our first Prime Minister due to his apparent racism as manifest in his insistence on referring to the Canada’s Indigenous as “savages.” But MacDonald was not apprised of 21st Century Relativism, indeed would have been appalled to learn that Postmodern “intellectuals” now suggest that Human Intelligence, rather than being a vehicle to the truth, is but a cudgel with which to “marginalize” others. Scanning the amazing philosophical/literary output of Western Civilization coupled with the undeniable superiority of its response to the pragmatic demands of life in the real world, he would seem to have been unequivocally justified in deeming his cultural traditions to be more “civilized” than those of the Americas’ Indigenous. How, one wonders, do contemporary “intellectuals” have the audacity to demonize one subject to a completely different set of cultural assumptions 150 years ago, for not sharing their own eminently debatable if not utterly absurd vision of reality?
Slavery has been a socioeconomic fact for all of recorded history. Given his hierarchical vision of the species, the brilliant Aristotle failed to denounce it while nevertheless demanding the enslaved be treated humanely. Others such as the Ancient Stoics and Cynics, however, deemed all Men to have been created equal thereby planting that seed which would come to fruition with the advent of the European Enlightenment approximately 2000 years later.
In the century and a half preceding the Declaration of Independence, slavery was indeed practiced throughout the States, particularly in the agricultural South whose economy prospered because of it. White indentured slaves, by the way, were a part of that scenario. But while the damning narrative promulgated by the Marxist Left would condemn these early colonialists who were themselves seeking to escape the oppressiveness of 17th Century England, the fact is they were not to unite into a coherent political unit until 1776 before which time those who were in fact Enlightenment Idealists had no way of imposing their Ideals upon what was but a disparate collection of socioeconomic interests.
But even after The Declaration of Independence, in the 80 or so years before the Civil War, slavery continued to be practiced throughout the South. Were the Nation’s founding fathers simply hypocrites whose endorsement of the Principle that all Men are created Equal with certain Inalienable Rights was mere posturing? Thomas Jefferson inherited and continued to own slaves throughout his life. Perhaps Marcuse, the N.Y. Times, Antifa and B.L.M. are correct and America was in fact an oppressive, racist regime from day one. Or perhaps there were insurmountable mitigating circumstances which made the realization of the Declaration’s ideals impossible until well into the 19th Century.
Certainly no one is suggesting that the eradication of Slavery as a result of the Civil War meant the end of racial intolerance and bigotry in the States. But in discussing Cultures, our concerns are the Principles and Values informing them rather than the inevitably flawed behavior of people in general. In spite of the narrative promoted by the “1619 Project,” the Principles and Values that emerged from the European Enlightenment which were in fact embraced by the fathers of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, were inestimably superior not only to those which continued to dominate most of the rest of the world 250 years ago, but indeed to those which continue to plague much of that world today!
In one of the early drafts of the Declaration of Independence Jefferson included a lengthy passage condemning slavery, a passage that would be deleted from the final version. The colonies were waging war with perhaps the most daunting military power on the planet. Only a third of them were fully committed to that war, significant numbers in the South remaining loyal to Britain. As the often devastating conflict was not to be decided until 1783, it was deemed prudent in 1776 to delete Jefferson’s polemic on Slavery for fear of further alienating support in the South. But while he continued to own slaves, he continued to seek to have slavery abolished. In 1778 he introduced a bill to the Virginia legislature that would have banned the import of slaves from Africa. In 1784 he attempted to have slavery eradicated from what were then known as the Northwest Territories. In a 1785 treatise entitled “Notes on the State of Virginia,” he introduced a plan for the gradual emancipation of all slaves within the newly founded Nation.
The Constitution which came into effect in 1789 only to be amended by the Bill of Rights in 1791, sought to defend the fundamental freedoms of the Individual against arbitrary government intrusion. It was the conviction of Madison, Jefferson etc, that respect for those Freedoms, subject to objectively defined Rules of Law, was the Individual’s only defense against Tyranny, the tyranny of those utterly devoid of conscience as well as the perhaps more dangerous tyranny of those convinced of the sanctimony of their good intentions.
“Progressives,” of course, are of the latter mind-set. Simply ignoring the fact that Collectivist Regimes which put some abstract definition of Social Justice ahead of the Rights of the Individual inevitably lead to concentration camps and death squads, they cannot resist the temptation to tell others what they ought to believe and how they ought to live. Evidence of their dementia is everywhere. Today’s “liberals” are the most illiberal fools on the planet. In the U.S. their tyrannical impulses are evident not only in the “progressive” media’s tendency to brazenly manipulate the truth to further its agenda, but in the ugly, primitive behavior of America’s “social justice warriors,” behavior which the media and Democrats in general only began to condemn when it became apparent that it might impede Biden’s chances of being elected. The Left is intellectually and morally bankrupt and every day gives evidence of that fact.
But, the postmodern cynic might ask, if the States was indeed founded upon a genuine reverence for the Ideals of the Constitution, why did it continue to tolerate slavery for 70 years after the publication of that document. Clearly the frailty of the Union was a factor, the insistence of the founding fathers that the South should abandon slavery most likely to result in the country’s immediate dissolution. And of course after the prolonged war with Britain, it was perfectly understandable that in the first few decades of the 19 Century Americans were hardly eager to engage in another such conflict. When, under the leadership of Lincoln, that conflict did occur, it cost the States over 800,000 lives, more than it was to lose in all subsequent wars combined. Yes, 800,000 lives were lost in the U.S government’s attempt to eradicate a 2000 year old practice which, according to B.L.M. and the contemporary Left in general, that government really, secretly cherished!
The “1619 Project,” in attempting to expose what it refers to as the “Racist DNA” of the American past, simply fails to acknowledge the multitude of mitigating factors at play in the events under consideration, including the radically different set of cultural norms impacting those events. Simple, irrefutable fact: It was White Western Europeans, in this case colonialists from Great Britain, that led the assault on a vile institution that was still widely practiced among many of the peoples of Asia, Africa and the Americas.
In 1772 a British court ruled in favor of a Black man named Somerset who was suing to be released from the clutches of one Captain Knowles, the judge declaring slavery to be incompatible with the basic tenets of Christianity. In the first decades of the 19th Century William Wilberforce worked relentlessly to have the practice banned from the British Empire, finally succeeding in 1833 with the Slavery Abolition Act. For approximately 50 years, extending into the reign of Victoria, the West African Squadron of the British navy patrolled the coast of Africa, intercepting approximately 16000 slave ships and freeing over 150,000 of their prisoners. These were preeminently people of Color being sold into servitude by other people of Color! What most people do not know is that the British government took out a loan of 20 million pounds to buy the freedom of every slave within its purview, this the equivalent of approximately 20 billion pounds today. It is a loan that was finally settled in 2014 !!!!!!
Even as slavery continued to be tolerated within the U.S., the African Squadron of its Navy, beginning in 1819 and continuing up to the Civil War, cooperated with the Brits in their attempt to suppress the slave trade along Africa’s West Coast. While Canada was home to relatively few Blacks, 1793 saw the government of Ontario [Upper Canada] also legislate against slavery, demanding the young be treated humanely until their release at the age of 25 whereupon they would most likely be able to fend for themselves. Clearly, as the 19th Century began, the ideas promulgated by the Enlightenment were beginning to inform Western Culture in general. While certainly one can find examples of vile behavior among European colonialists of every nation, it can legitimately be argued that Western Civilization, and more specifically the British Empire, were the best things to ever happen to the human race. This statement, of course, makes me an Alt-Right, Neo-Nazi, White Supremacist. It is absurd but it is the narrative of the day, the narrative of those who have replaced Thought with Sentiment, those who are quite literally Brain Dead.
The United Nations estimates there are approximately one million people living as mere slaves in the Third World today. Millions of Muslim Women exist as little more than the possessions of their husbands. Sharia Law in many Muslim regimes mandates the peremptory execution of homosexuals and apostates. Dare express outrage over any of these demonstrable facts and the woke Left will be all over you. Yet these same simpletons have no problem denouncing early American colonialists over 400 years ago for not denouncing Slavery with the sanctimonious fervor of a 21st Century Egalitarian.
The Chinese Communist Party has praised the N.Y. Time’s “1619 Project.” Of course it has! Only the most deluded could fail to realize that it is intent on subjugating the Capitalist West. Canada’s Prime Minister has frequently expressed his admiration for that regime. As has Joe Biden. Do your homework. Biden has repeatedly launched glowing tributes to the Chinese Communists. Its comparable to praising Adolf Hitler! And of course his running mate is of the same mindset, Kamala Harris being radically to the Left.
It is election day in the States. A vote for the Democratic ticket is literally a vote against Western Civilization, a vote for the factually bereft, intellectually absurd, morally specious notion that, as Herbert Marcuse maintained, White Western Man is the vilest creature to have ever sullied the face of the earth. It is a vote for the crippling of the country’s economy, the further degradation of its inner cities, the further degradation of the rights of the Individual; a vote for radical as opposed to rational responses to environmental issues, for the eradication of the country’s borders, for trillions of additional dollars in deficits, etc., etc., etc.
Yet with only a couple of exceptions, everyone I know here in Canada would rather support Biden/Harris than vote for Mr. Trump because, well, they don’t like the way he expresses himself; they don’t like his face; they don’t like his manners. Truly Insane!