It’s been over 220 years since the Constitution of the United States was ratified. Since then, much has changed because of the industrial and information revolutions. Our Constitution has also received some much needed improvement, most notably the elimination of slavery and extension of voting rights to women. Other fine amendments promote equality under the law regardless of race, religion or sex. Nevertheless, it is a mistake to believe our basic nature has been evolving along with these changes.
During the latter 19th Century, several utopian movements gained strength as a result of social ills blamed on the industrial revolution. These movements, including Communism and Progressivism, deny basic human nature. If a government is built around the strongest component of human nature, specifically the desire to make one’s own way in life, it need only protect personal freedoms and resolve disputes where one person’s freedoms impinge upon another’s. If not, it must rely on an increasingly intrusive and coercive presence to reshape society according to its goals. As the government increases in size, it invariably reduces personal freedoms and effectively returns everyone to the dependency of childhood. Inevitably, human nature revolts against the loss of adulthood. Concurrently, the enlarged government crumbles under its own administrative weight. Their utopia is always a mirage.
This series of essays searches for what went wrong and what can be done to correct it.