{"id":24331,"date":"2021-02-03T08:53:09","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T08:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=132694"},"modified":"2021-02-03T08:53:09","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T08:53:09","slug":"national-ideals-and-the-1776-commission-report-an-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/03\/national-ideals-and-the-1776-commission-report-an-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"National Ideals and the 1776 Commission Report: an Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image Source: 1776 Commission Takes Historic and Scholarly Step to Restore Understanding of the Greatness of the American Founding – Public Domain<\/p><\/div>\n

One of Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to restructure, or maybe de-structure, the U.S. was the establishment of a\u00a01776 Commission<\/a>. Its job was to recast American history in an extravagantly patriotic fashion so as to assert U.S. exceptionalism. There is a Platonic correlate to this: the ideal is more real than the actual. Thus, ideals laid down in the nation\u2019s founding documents are presented as more real, more instructive, than actual policies of U.S. national and state governments, and the behavior of their citizens.<\/p>\n

The actual Donald Trump, of course, does not care about history, of which he knows little. Maybe that is why he did not bother to put any professional historians of U.S. history on the commission. But as president, he knew who his allies were, and if they wanted to prioritize myth and canonize ideals, it was all right with him. And so the major premise of the\u00a01776 Report<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is that the United States was founded upon, and remains an expression of, \u201cuniversal and eternal principles.\u201d For instance, the Declaration of Independence\u2019s assertion \u201cthat all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness\u201d would be one such.<\/p>\n

As far as the report\u2019s authors are concerned, these basic yet universal \u201cfounding principles\u201d of the nation should be front and center in the teaching of national history. The authors are angered by the fact that, in their eyes, this is not being done. Quite the opposite. They believe that what is being taught are the shortfalls from such eternal ideals. How is that a problem? Well, to dwell on the actual, inequitable and often unjust national behavior of Americans is to undermine the unity of the nation and bring low its image. And, for the\u00a01776 Report\u00a0<\/em>authors, that is not what education is all about.<\/p>\n

Education\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The authors of the\u00a01776 Report<\/em>\u00a0believe that\u00a0<\/em>\u201cthe primary duties of schools are twofold: 1. teach students \u201cpractical wisdom.\u201d That is, teach \u201cthe basic skills needed to function in society, such as reading, writing, and mathematics.\u201d In other words, education should prepare the student for the job market. This has actually been a recognized goal of schooling since children ceased following in the careers of their parents and home-learned skills consequently no longer sufficed.<\/p>\n

Then there is the other \u201cessential\u201d goal of schools: 2. the passing on of \u201ctranscendent knowledge.\u201d This too is a \u00a0long-recognized goal which, the report says, was endorsed by the founding fathers of the nation. \u201cEducators must convey a sense of enlightened patriotism that equips each generation with a knowledge of America\u2019s founding principles, a deep reverence for their liberties, and a profound love of their country.\u201d Put the two educational goals together and you get the transmission of \u201ctranscendent knowledge and practical wisdom that had been passed down for generations and which aimed to develop the character and intellect of the student.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the authors, all of this sums to nothing less than \u201cteaching the truth about America.\u201d To be clear, the authors of the report do not want us to so much ignore \u201cthe faults of our past\u201d as to \u201cstand up to the petty tyrants in every sphere who demand that we speak only of America\u2019s sins while denying her greatness.\u201d It should be noted that the authors do not address the problem that for those born and bred in poverty, say either in Harlem or Appalachia, the nation\u2019s greatness might not be so real.<\/p>\n

Universal and Eternal Tenets?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The report\u2019s repeated use of the words \u201cuniversal and eternal,\u201d along with \u201ctranscendent,\u201d in describing the founding documents of the United States, transforms those documents into sacred texts existing beyond critique. To use such \u201ceternal\u201d references as teaching points\u2014as necessary attributes of what is really \u201ctrue\u201d about the United States\u2014is to trade history for a semi-religious faith. Granted, this sort of substitution is not original to American conservatives. However, in this case, one gets a strong impression upon reading the\u00a01776 Report<\/em>\u00a0that the hidden message is the cultural and religious superiority of a white Christian version of America.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to be a professional historian to recognize that there is no perfection in human history, America\u2019s or anybody else\u2019s. There are no eternal and universal tenets, either, when seen in the light of actual historical events. For example, the alleged \u201ceternal and universal\u201d rights to \u201cliberty and happiness\u201d had not been recognized, at least not formally, in thousands of years of human history prior to 1776, and even then, in the emerging United States, they proved immediately unachievable.<\/p>\n

As the report concedes, the \u201ceternal\u201d principle cited above from the Declaration of Independence had to be set aside in 1776 just to keep the thirteen confederated American states together. That was done specifically in reference to slavery. The founding fathers were able to find the necessary escape clause in another, more pragmatic, but still semi-sacred principle that the government should be based on the consent of the governed. It turned out that a lot of the (white) governed favored slavery.<\/p>\n

It is in this way that the\u00a01776 Report<\/em>\u00a0gets off on an illogical and ahistorical foot. Its authors confuse \u201ctranscendent\u201d things wished for with things as they have historically been and continue to be. They can do this because, in the end, they believe in the following Platonic-like maxim: \u201cWe must first avoid an all-too-common mistake. It is wrong to think of history by itself as the standard for judgment. The standard is set by focusing on unchanging principles that transcend history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Progressive Enemies<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who actually believes that we should make judgments on the basis of actual history while ignoring the \u201cthe unchanging principles\u201d that supposedly \u201ctranscend history\u201d? It turns to be the same \u201cpetty tyrants\u201d who \u201cspeak only of America\u2019s sins while denying her greatness.\u201d Specifically, the\u00a01776 Report<\/em>\u00a0points to \u201cprogressive reformers\u201d who are also mixed together with \u201cactivists of identity politics.\u201d But aren\u2019t these the folks who demand change so that the United States might more closely conform to its ideals? Not according to those who say history is not a good standard for judgment.<\/p>\n

For the report\u2019s authors the progressive reformers\u2019 approach is just a hunt for someone to blame for social ills. And the hunt divides Americans into \u201coppressed and oppressor groups.\u201d As an aside, one might point out that long-term injustice resulting from institutionalized social ills inevitably does the same thing. The report claims that the real aim of the progressives is to make the original oppressed into new oppressors, and the former oppressors into new oppressed. While one can imagine such a flip taking place against the backdrop of revolutionary upheaval, to assign such a reversal to \u201cprogressive reformers,\u201d most of whom seek not revolution but rather policy reforms, is gross exaggeration.<\/p>\n

If the report\u2019s authors are afraid of reform, what do they have to offer in its place? As best I can make out, they want us all to be patient and nice to each other because the \u201cAmerican people have ever pursued freedom and justice, though not perfectly.\u201d If we really have faith in the nation\u2019s \u201ceternal and universal\u201d ideals, things should work out in the end. What if this seems to take forever? Well, it might be that the imperfection has no real cure and so it must be accepted and lived with lest attempts at reform lead to the destruction of society\u2014echos of Edmund Burke.<\/p>\n

Other Problems<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are other problems with the report. Here are just some of them:<\/p>\n

+ The report tells us that for a republic to endure, the people must \u201cshare a commonality in manners, customs, language and dedication to the common good.\u201d But, of course, the United States has never been such a place. It has always been a land of immigrants with a constant underpinning of many manners, customs and languages. As for the common good, there has never been any agreement on that. While the report claims that \u201cthe Constitution has proven sturdy against narrow interest groups,\u201d this is simply inaccurate. The nation\u2019s governing practices rest on a longstanding, if often corrupt, foundation of interest group politics.<\/p>\n

+ The report\u2019s authors make the common historical\u00a0mistake of pointing fingers at the British crown, that is,\u00a0\u00a0King George III, for the \u201ctyranny\u201d to which the colonies were\u00a0allegedly subjected. But in 1776, for all practical purposes, the king did not make policy for the British Empire. Parliament did that. The founding fathers decided it would be too awkward to blame a representative body, somewhat similar to the one they were going to create, of the crime of \u201ctyranny.\u201d So they blamed the monarch.<\/p>\n

+ Then there is the ahistorical assertion that \u201cthe world is still and always will be divided into nations.\u201d Gee whizz! What about all those multicultural empires both of the past and present? What of the constant fluctuation of boundaries? Look at all the peoples once encapsulated within the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, or more recently the Soviet Union and China.<\/p>\n

+ Finally, there is the problematic statement, \u201cthe right to keep and bear arms is required by the natural and\u00a0fundamental right to life.\u201d Well, perhaps, if we were all living in a Hobbesian jungle. This, along with praise for the anti-abortion cause, certainly confirms where on the political spectrum the authors of the 1776 Report\u00a0<\/em>are coming from.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

There has been much criticism of the 1776 Commission and its conclusions. Newly elected President Joe Biden did away with the commission on his first day in office and removed its report from government websites. His spokesperson observed that it \u201cerased\u201d America\u2019s history of racial injustice. Well, perhaps it hadn\u2019t erase it, but it certainly equivocated about it.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that some of this criticism was nearly as naive as the report\u2019s conclusions. For instance, David Blight, a Civil War historian from Yale,\u00a0said that the report<\/a>\u00a0was \u201can insult to the whole enterprise of education\u201d which \u201cis supposed to help young people to learn to think critically.\u201d Perhaps that is Professor Blight\u2019s educational purpose, and all the more power to him. However, both historically and contemporaneously, the \u201centerprise of education\u201d has never given more than lip-service to such a goal. Maybe this is because independent and critically thinking kids scare their parents.<\/p>\n

Finally, as an indicator of the nation\u2019s deep divide, both supporters and opponents of the report\u00a0accused the other<\/a>\u00a0of coming from \u201cideologically driven positions\u201d and aiming at producing \u201cpolitical propaganda.\u201d Such mutual recriminations are by now part and parcel of a larger social civil war.<\/p>\n

Do the two sides agree on anything? Perhaps. In his famous novel\u00a01984<\/em>, George Orwell proposed that \u201che who controls the past, controls the future.\u201d That is probably the only thing supporters and opponents of the\u00a01776 Report<\/em>\u00a0seem to agree on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The post National Ideals and the 1776 Commission Report: an Analysis<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to restructure, or maybe de-structure, the U.S. was the establishment of a\u00a01776 Commission. Its job was to recast American history in an extravagantly patriotic fashion so as to assert U.S. exceptionalism. There is a Platonic correlate to this: the ideal is more real than the actual. Thus, ideals laid down More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post National Ideals and the 1776 Commission Report: an Analysis<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24331"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24332,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24331\/revisions\/24332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}