Civilization #52: Empire of Democracy

Okay, so good morning. We are discussing the American Revolution today. So to review what we've done so far, after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, there are now four major civilizations that are competing against each other for world domination. Last class we did the British. Today we will do the Americans. Next week we'll do the Russians and the So the Americans. When you think of America, there's a very famous quote from Oscar Wilde, who is an English playwright, novelist, humorist. And he said, "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between." Okay, so he meant this as a joke.

So what did he mean by this? This is a question we will discuss today. And what I will show you is that America in many ways was designed as the The founding fathers of America recognized the failings and problems of civilization and designed a new form of government based on Enlightenment principles in order to redeem humanity from the prejudices, the atrocities of civilization, okay? So that's the argument we will look at. All right. So the history of the Americas begins when the Europeans, led by the Spanish, start to interact with the New World.

So the Spanish, starting in 1492, will come and conquer the Aztecs, the Mayans, and the Incas. And they will establish basically plantation economies where the Spanish are extracting resources, primarily gold, silver, from the Americas. They will also establish sugar on the islands of the Caribbean, and they will man it with slaves from Africa as well as other places. And this is extremely profitable for the Spanish. So, of course, the English, the French, and the Dutch Republic want to get in on the action, okay? And at first, they start to smuggle resources into the New World, and they engage in piracy.

In 1588, the English navy defeats the Spanish Armada. And this opens up the New World now for the Europeans to come and colonize it, okay? The problem, though, is the Spanish control the best parts of the New World. And so everyone else is stuck with North America. And in North America, there are quite a few problems. First of all, the weather's very cold. Okay? So it's not hospitable to colonization. Second problem is that you have lots of Native Americans in North America who are extremely violent. They are used to freedom, and they will fight to the At this time in history, the tallest, strongest people in the world are actually the Native Americans in North America.

Also, you have lots of diseases that are problematic for the Europeans. So the Europeans spent a lot of time, basically decades, trying to figure out how to best colonize North America.

So there were three major nations that were trying to colonize North America. You have the French, and what they will do is they will establish the fur trade in Canada and in the United States. They will basically trade with the natives to bring fur back to Europe. And this is a great deal for both the natives and the French. The Dutch come in and they will establish colonies, called New Amsterdam. This is today New York City. All right, so the Dutch tried to establish colonies as well. The people who are most successful at establishing colonies are the British.

And a lot of it is because it is a very grassroots, very bottom-up movement. So the first major colony for the British is Jamestown, named after James I of Britain. And this is not a very successful colony at first, but they persist. The most successful colony is actually Boston. What makes Boston unique at this stage in North American history is that it is established by a company, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, that has a charter from the English Crown. Also, they bring in families into this area. So, before it was basically men who came over, now it's families who come over.

And then third of all, the people who come over are Puritans. Puritans, as we discussed previously, believe in the importance of literacy. Everyone has a responsibility to read the Bible in order to interpret the command of God properly. And so Boston, from the very beginning, is a literate society. It has schools, it has newspapers, it is very political and it grows very, very fast. Also, if you look at Boston, it is perfectly situated between North America and England. And as England is industrializing, it requires raw resources, mainly agricultural products from this area, okay?

So Boston grows rapidly because of all these factors. So in the year 1682, you can see that the eastern United States has been colonized by the British, okay? The French are still in Canada and they're going to move down to the Midwest United States. The Spanish are in the southern United States, this is Florida. They found a colony called St. Augustine. They will also in California start to build colonies as well. But as you can see, most of the economic activity in North America is based on the eastern seaboard.

Now, what's really important for us to remember is the diversity of these colonies. First of all, you have differences in the economy. The northern part will focus mostly on mercantile trade. The southern part will focus mostly on agriculture. To support the agriculture, they will import slaves from Africa in order to provide the labor for Charleston and other places. The motivations of the individuals are different. So some come for economic reasons, but a lot come for religious purposes. So, for example, there's a man named William Penn. And he's a Quaker.

He believes in creating a peaceful civilization. So he has a charter from the king and he founds a new colony called Pennsylvania, named after him, that believes in religious and national tolerance. So a lot of Germans come over and settle down in Pennsylvania. The capital is Philadelphia. And they are Quakers, so they believe they must not fight against others, okay? And this experiment persists for decades, okay? It's a pretty successful experiment, but over time they come into conflict with the natives and with other civilizations, with other colonies, and as such they start to take up arms, okay?

There's another colony called Baltimore. It was founded actually as a Catholic haven, okay? So England at this point is mainly Protestant or Puritan, and then Lord Baltimore decides to found a new colony in Maryland that preaches religious tolerance, especially for Catholics, okay? So what's really important for us to remember is that even at this early stage in American history, there's tremendous diversity, openness, and religious tolerance in America, okay? Does that make sense? All right. So by the year 1750, there are about a million British on the eastern seaboard.

That's a lot of people, okay? In comparison, the French, who occupy actually most of the territory in North America, there's only 40,000. Eventually, these two groups, the British and the French, will come into conflict, creating something called the French and Indian Wars. Okay? And as you can see, it's really not a fair fight, okay? You've got a million British versus 40,000 French. The Indians will get involved as well because what's happening is these colonies are practicing a rapid form of colonization and expansion. What they do is they bring in immigrants, then as the population explodes, these immigrants will be forced to move out west to settle territory in the western frontier of these colonies.

But, as you know, these areas are inhabited by Native Americans. And so this brings the Indians into conflict with the British as well. So the resolution to this is that King George III will proclaim that the American colonies are not allowed to move westwards of the Appalachian Mountains, okay? So he's restricting the growth of the American colonies in order to maintain friendship with the And obviously, the Americans don't like that. So in 1764, there are three major issues that bring the American colonists into conflict with the English Crown, okay?

The first is, as I just mentioned, the English Crown is limiting the expansion of the colonies westwards. And they don't like that, okay? Second is that it was very expensive for the British to protect the colonies against the French and the Indians. In fact, at this stage in history, it is the British people, not the American people, that are paying for the defense of these colonies. In fact, the British people pay 50 times more in taxes than the Americans. And obviously, the British people don't actually think this is a fair deal.

All right? So the British Crown tries in many instances to impose a tax in order to get Americans to pay for the defense of their territory. And Americans don't like that. For the longest time, because of the English Civil War and other factors, the English Crown could not actually interfere in North American affairs, and so they were used to a high level of autonomy. Okay? And the third major problem between the colonists and the British is in trade. So at this stage in history, all these nations, Spain, France, Britain, are practicing an economic policy called mercantilism.

Okay? Mercantilism is the idea that all trade should be directed by the state for the purpose of generating wealth for the state. And so what this means is that there are different trade zones that are established in competition with each other. And so if you are a British subject, you're only allowed to trade with other British lands. Okay? So the Americans can trade with England and with India, but they're not allowed to trade with the French, and the Dutch, and the Spanish. And the Americans don't really like this either, okay? So these are the three main factors driving division between the American colonists and the British Crown.

And this will, of course, culminate in the American Revolution, okay? The War of Independence of 1776. Also, what's really important for us to remember at this time is that per capita, the Americans are far wealthier than the British. Okay? Now, this is strange. And you ask yourself, why is it that even though England is industrializing far more rapidly than the Americans, and there are more British citizens than Americans, and also Britain is an empire, whereas America is a colony, how is it that the Americans per capita are able to become wealthier than the British?

And the answer has to do with the American work ethic, the American attitude towards life. And this is best expressed by a man named Benjamin Franklin. Okay, who is considered one of the founding fathers of America. He had an incredible life. He was born poor, but through hard work, through tenacity, through optimism, he was able to become a merchant, a very wealthy merchant, and an inventor, a philosopher, an ambassador, a politician, okay? So he is basically the role model for Americans. Towards the end of his life, he wrote his And so we're going to study his autobiography in order to get insight into the mentality of the average American at this stage in history, okay?

Benjamin Franklin, by writing his memoir, starts a new fad in America that persists today. It's called the self-improvement or self-help fad. And these are the books that sell the most in America. So you may have heard of How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. There's also Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, okay? And these books are just telling you how to, as they say, be more successful in life, okay? This is called the self-help movement. And Americans really pioneered this.

Before, no one believed that through your hard work, you can actually attain more in life. And in fact, you must go up and obtain more in life, okay? So the Americans really start this self-help fad. All right. So let's read certain passages from the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin to gain insight into the American psychology, okay? "From the bosom of poverty and obscurity," so he was born poor and was born a "In which I drew my first breath and spent my earliest years, I've raised myself to a state of opulence and to some degree of celebrity in the world.

This is the American dream. You can be born poor, but through hard work, you can become rich, okay? A constant good fortune has tended me through every period of life to my present advanced age. And my descendants may be desirous of learning what were the means of which I made use and which, thanks to the assisting hand of Providence, have proved so eminently successful. They may also, should they ever be placed in a similar situation, derive some advantages from my narrative," okay? So not only is he going to tell you how he became rich, but he will teach you how to become rich, okay?

So if you just do what he does, you'll become rich as well. So this is the American optimism. This is the American dream. All right. So he continues. He's talking to a friend and his friend tells him, "Your writing sucks." And at this time, he should be angry, right? But instead, he recognizes that, look, there's merit in my friend's criticism. So I will improve myself, okay? And the way he improves himself, and he writes it, I won't read it because it's too long. But what he does is this.

He takes a magazine, The Spectator, which is very well written, and then he summarizes the main points of the articles that he's read. Then he will take the summary and he will rewrite the article from memory himself. And then he will compare and contrast his work with that of the original work, and then he will make adjustments and refinements to his own writing, okay? Now, if you actually know how to write and if you actually met good writers, writers don't write like this, okay? This is not how you learn how to read and write.

But again, this shows us the optimism of the American character. That through just pure hard work and tenacity and persistence, you can learn anything. Even though historically we all know that writers are people of genius, they're sort of born great. Okay? You're not going to learn how to be a man of genius just through pure imitation, okay? But what he's telling us is, no, through imitation, you can improve yourself. Okay? That's a very American outlook. All right. Now, he's going to tell us how he became "I began to pay by degrees the debt I had contracted.

And in order to ensure my credit and character as a tradesman, I took care not only to be really industrious and frugal, but also to avoid every appearance of the contrary. I was plainly dressed and never seen any place of public amusement," okay? So this is, he's telling you how he became rich. First of all, he was honest. When he did business, he made sure that he never tricked anyone, okay? His reputation mattered above all. Also, he dressed in a very simple way. He didn't waste any money. He came across to everyone as someone who was a good Christian, a good Calvinist, someone who enjoyed making money and someone who saved all his money in pursuit of the praise of God, okay?

And this is how you become rich in Right? And you can imagine that there is merit to what he says, that if you do work hard, if you are honest, and if you save a lot of money, then it's possible for you to become rich. Okay? And this is the common mentality right now at this stage in America. Okay, he continues. "I have related that during the autumn of the preceding year, I united the majority of well-informed persons of my acquaintance into a club, which we called by the name of the Junto, and the object of which was to improve our understandings."

Okay, this is really important. What he's telling us is that after he became rich, he met other rich people and they formed a philosophy club to debate and discuss the political issues of the day. It was like a book club. Okay? They read John Locke, they read Thomas Hobbes, and they discussed these ideas. So this is a quintessential American attitude. Constant self-improvement. Okay? You can become the wealthiest man in the world, but you still must read books. Also, this is important because these book clubs will become the foundation of the American Revolution, right?

These founding fathers will meet in these clubs and they will conspire to seek independence from Britain. A lot of it is they believe that providence, God, has tasked them with founding a new nation based on Enlightenment principles. So the religion of these people is what we call deism, okay? D-E-I-S-M. And the idea of deism, that's very different from previous religions, is they believe there is a God and God created the universe, but after that, God went away. And now it is the responsibility of humans to make the world perfect.

Okay? That's the mission from God. All right. "This was the best school for politics and philosophy that then existed in the province. For our questions, which were read once a week previous to the discussion, induced us to peruse attentively such books as were written upon the subject proposed, that we might be able to speak upon them more permanently." Okay? So they know that Providence has tasked them with creating a great nation called America. And to understand how to do so, they will read all the books of integrity. They will study Rome.

They will study Athens, Sparta, Carthage. They will study the Dutch Republic. They will study the British Constitution. Okay? And by studying these classics, they will come to a consensus on how to build a new society in the image of God. Okay? Does that make sense? Okay? This is the foundation of the American Revolution. All right. So not only did America become very wealthy very fast through the hard work, simplicity, and optimism of the people, but as you can see from this map, they basically spread out really quickly. At this time in history, the Spanish, the British, the French are all in North America.

The Russians are here as well, but over time, the Americans will push everyone out. And this is what they call Manifest Destiny. Okay? All right. So, 1776, America declares independence from Britain. And again, this is after years and years of conflict over a myriad of issues. Thomas, one of the Founding Fathers, writes something called the Declaration of Independence. Why is America declaring independence from Britain? And the answer is, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that 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.

That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it." Okay, guys, Thomas Jefferson, in writing the Declaration of Independence, which is the founding document of the United States, is just copying word for word, basically, John Locke's Second Treatise of Government. Okay, this is what John Locke said. We are born with three fundamental rights that God has given us, therefore no one can take them away from us.

The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of property. Government is instituted, created, in order to protect our rights. If a government fails to protect these rights, then we have a responsibility and a right to abolish this government and create a new one.

All right. So there's the War of Independence, and the great hero of this war, of course, is George Washington. Why Americans revere So, can you open the door? Why Americans revere George Washington is that it's not how great he was during the war, because ultimately the Americans didn't actually defeat the British. It was the French, the Spanish who combined together to defeat the British. And eventually the British decided that, you know what, the Americans, the colonists, they're too problematic. We don't really care, okay? So let's just focus on Europe.

So the Americans fought a guerrilla warfare, and they were very brave, but without the French, the Americans could not possibly have defeated the British, okay? So, but what made George Washington so esteemed in the hearts of the American people is after this war, he retired, okay? He just went back to his farm and enjoyed his last years in the garden. And that's why Americans worship him, because he's a man who could have become king of America, but instead he chose to grant Americans their freedom and independence, okay?

The aide-de-camp of George Washington, the genius of the American Revolution, is actually Alexander Hamilton. He is really the founder of America. He's really the one who has the vision of where America could go, of what America could be, okay? His name is Alexander Hamilton. And he is in conflict with Jefferson. These two individuals represent two competing strands of America after the War of Independence.

Thomas Jefferson, what's important is to maintain the inalienable individual rights of the individuals. He wants a democracy. And because most people are farmers at this point he believes economic policies should be focused on agriculture, okay? So this is Thomas Jefferson, the ideals of the American Revolution. Hamilton saw the world differently. He believed in his heart, as did many people at this time, America is destined to be an empire and therefore it needs a strong central government. And in order to become an empire, it must have industry, okay? So, some certain points.

So the colonists are fighting the British because the British are trying to tax them, the British are trying to impose an army on them, and because the British are trying to limit their trade. Okay? So in order to get everyone to fight, they created something called the Articles of Confederation, which limits the power of the government to impose taxes, which limits the ability of the government to raise troops. But this is problematic, you can actually fight a war like this, okay? So after the British leave and leave America alone, problems start to Basically, the main problem is you have lots and lots of soldiers who used to be farmers.

They were promised pay when they joined the militia against the British, but because the government has no money, they had no money, okay? And they're also farmers, and because they had to leave their farms, they fell into debt. And so rich people came and took over their farms. And this led to something called Shays' Rebellion, where farmers are now trying to overthrow the government. And so the solution was to create something called the Constitution, which would more power to the central government, especially to collect revenue, to control trade, foreign trade, and to have an army, basically, okay?

So that was the solution that was proposed by Hamilton and his friends. Jefferson argued that this would, of course, limit the rights of individuals. So he insisted on adding something called the Bill of Rights to the Constitution, okay? You may have heard of something called the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the right to speak freely, the right to bear arms. This is from the Bill of Rights. It's actually not in the Constitution. The Constitution is a framework for how to build a strong central government, okay? Second thing I want you guys to understand is agriculture and industry, it's a framework, okay?

It's a different economic framework. With agriculture, you need a lot of slave labor because you need people to man the fields and grow the crops, okay? And that's why if you want to have agriculture, you have to bring actually a lot of slave labor from Africa. But if you focus on industry, you don't want slave labor. You want free labor, okay? You want the market to decide who does what job and how much they get paid. This is a much more efficient way to organize your economy if you are industrializing.

And the reason why is when you're industrializing, you need specialized labor. Okay? You need differentiation of skills. And the market is the best mechanism for skills to be differentiated and to be Okay? Also, think about this. If you got really sick, okay? You need heart surgery. Would you rather go to a doctor who's a slave or a doctor who's going to charge you a million dollars? Right? So free labor just allows for more economic activity and therefore more wealth generation in society. All right? So these are two competing visions of where America should be headed.

And of course, this is a contradiction, okay? You can't have slave labor and free labor at the same time. The North goes in its policy of free labor. The South maintains a policy of slave labor because they were mainly an agricultural society. Obviously, Jefferson is from the South. Hamilton is from New This conflict would eventually give rise to the American Civil War of 1861, okay? So this conflict has always been there. But in 1789, when they introduced the Constitution, they chose to ignore this conflict until 1861, when this conflict finally led to violence, okay?

So this is the root of the American Civil War. Does that make sense, guys? All right. Now, let's look at the Constitution. The Constitution is meant to be the most perfect form of government ever Okay? America is a clean slate. It's a tabula rasa. Americans can do whatever they want. So they study all the previous republican, democratic, monarchal, aristocratic systems and they decide to Montesquieu. Montesquieu is a French thinker who put in the idea of separation of powers. If you want to create a perfect government, you need to balance the different factions of society using separation of powers.

Okay? So the American system is you have three different branches of government. You have the president, who the military as well as foreign Then you have the Congress, which controls the purse, the financing of government. Then you have the Supreme Court, which interprets the Constitution, which interprets the highest law of the land. And so, if done properly, what will happen is these three branches of government will balance each other out. They make the checks and balances, okay? Each is meant to inhibit the overextension of the other. That is the American system of government that is basically stolen from Montesquieu.

All right. The other check and balance is the relation between federal, Washington D.C., the state level, the individual states, and the local level. Okay? So the responsibilities of each are defined very clearly. And the idea is that they should also balance each other out. This contrasts, of course, with the Chinese system, where you just have one person in charge and he has something called the Politburo underneath him. The Politburo then appoints everyone into the government as well as the army as well as the provincial and local governments, okay?

So it's a very top-down system, whereas the American system is meant to be a balanced system. Okay? Does that make sense? All right. So the problem now is, now that you've decided that you need a constitution, you need a federal government, how do you convince the people to go along with this? Because for the constitution to go into effect, all 13 states have to agree to the constitution by a 2/3 majority. Okay? So to convince people, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay write something called The Federalist Papers. The Federalist Papers are a series of pamphlets, a series of newspaper articles that explain why the constitution is necessary.

Okay? So we're going to look at a few passages. All of them are written by Alexander Hamilton, who is really again the genius of the constitution, the one who is really driving the need for a strong central government in order to facilitate America's imperial ambitions. All right. "As this government is composed of small republics and enjoys internal happiness of each. In respect to its external situation, it is possessed by means of the association of all the advantages of large monarchies." Okay? So this idea of a mixed, balanced government, where you are trying to take advantage of all political systems.

Within America, it will be a republican Okay? And so you will enjoy within your area democracy. But at a national level, in relation to other states, it'll be a monarchy where the president represents the nation in discussions and negotiations and conflicts with the other great European All right. Another thing that the Constitution does is if the president wants to appoint ministers, if the president wants to appoint officials, they have to be approved by the Senate. Okay? And this is new. Usually a king can appoint whoever he or she wants.

But in the Constitution, the Senate must vet everyone. And the idea of this is to create accountability and transparency within government. Okay? So Hamilton explains this. "To what purpose then require the cooperation of the Senate? I answer that a necessity of their concurrence would have a powerful, though in general a sound operation. It would be an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the president and would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from state prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment, or from a view to popularity."

Okay, let's just say the president wants to appoint his son to be the Secretary of State. Okay? The son appears before the Senate and it is like a job interview. And then the son is an idiot. He doesn't know anything, okay? So in this instance, the son has embarrassed the president. And it's this fear of being embarrassed that inhibits the president from abusing his powers. Okay? That's the theory, okay? Does that make sense? And actually over the course of American history, it's worked very, very well, okay? The power of public opinion is very, very strong.

But what's important for us to remember is all this is based on the idea of convention, on norms, on values. As long as people buy into these conventions and norms, this system will work. But if you have someone like Donald Trump who does not buy into these norms and values, it may be a problem, okay? Okay? So we'll see what happens in the next few years.

All right. "These judicious reflections contain a lesson of moderation to all the sincere lovers of the Union and ought to put them upon their guard against hazarding anarchy, civil war, or perpetual alienation of the states from each other, and perhaps the military despotism of victorious demagogue." Okay, let me explain what this means. What this is saying is this. Alexander Hamilton, what he's saying is this, in creating a government, we're not trying to aspire to greatness. We're trying to prevent collapse. This is risk management. We're trying to avoid the risk of government, okay?

What's the risk of government? Well, you could have anarchy, where people reject the government. You have civil war, where the states go to war against each other. You could have a perpetual alienation of the states from each other, division within the government, and then military despotism, where a tyrant arises, okay? So that's the point of the Constitution, it's risk management. It's to prevent America from All right? All right. So, after the Constitution, America now embarks on something called Manifest Destiny. What they did Manifest Destiny is, it's the will of God for America to conquer and settle the entire Western Hemisphere.

Okay? North America, South America, it's all America because that is the will of So, today Trump is saying how America should annex Canada as well as Greenland. That's part of Manifest Destiny. It's not new. All right?

All right. This leads to 1823, something called the Monroe Doctrine. So President Monroe, before Congress, announces that from now on, the Europeans are not allowed to interfere in the Western Hemisphere. The Western Hemisphere is entirely American. Okay? So he says, "Europe are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers. The Western Hemisphere is henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers." Hey guys, Russia, France, Germany, Britain, Spain, forget the Western Hemisphere, it's our territory. You come over here and we'll beat the crap out of you. All right.

So now America, to achieve its manifest destiny, needs to expand, okay? And it uses multiple strategies to expand. In 1803, remember the midwest of the United States is controlled by France. It basically buys all this from Okay? So now it's extending outwards over to here. Of course, there are natives in these territories. What Americans do, of course, is eradicate the natives. It's a war of genocide. All right. The War of 1812 is when America and Canada come into conflict. Again, because of manifest destiny, America sees Canada as part of its territory, but the British don't agree and this leads to the War of 1812.

It's a stalemate, okay? And after the stalemate, basically the British and Americans agree that Canada will stay a British colony, but again, because of manifest destiny, we can expect America to eventually take over Canada as well as Greenland.

1846, the Mexican-American War. So America fights a war with Mexico and takes over Texas as well as California, okay? Basically, the entire western part of the United States is now incorporated into the new nation. In 1861, we have the Civil War, all right? And I've already explained the causes of the Civil War, right? This conflict between Thomas Jefferson and Hamilton. The two visions for where America is going will eventually lead us to the American Civil War. You may have learned that the American Civil War was about slavery. It was not about slavery.

It was mainly about states' rights. Okay? It was really about democracy versus empire. In a democracy the states can do whatever they want. But in an empire the central government is able to dictate a lot of policy, okay? So eventually this will lead to the Civil War. And of course the North wins the Civil War because the North is far more industrial, far wealthier and more powerful than the South. And so the Hamilton vision is now achieved and it will be expanded throughout the Western Hemisphere. There's a problem though.

The problem is, so at this time of course Abraham Lincoln is president of the United States and he's considered the greatest president in American history for a reason. The reason is this. The Civil War was the deadliest war in American history, okay? Let's look at this. Over 600,000 people died in the American Civil War, which was about 4 years. Only 400,000 died in World War II.

The problem is this. In 1861 the population of America at this time was 30 million people. In World War II the population was 130 million. So this was by far the deadliest war in American history. Brothers were killing brothers. It was a tremendous, I mean, it was such a bloody conflict. And so after this war everyone was asking, "Why did we do this? What's the point of this?" And so there was shock, there was anger, there was frustration. So Abraham Lincoln now has to stand up and explain why this happened.

Why did this war happen? All right? He needs to form a new vision of America that binds people together, that creates a new union. Okay? So he presents this new vision in something called the Gettysburg Address, which is considered the greatest speech in American history. Okay, this is 1863. The Battle of Gettysburg was one of the bloodiest battles in the American Civil War. And we're going to read all of it, okay? It's because it's a very short speech and it's very powerful. "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

All right. So the war of independence was not a war to seek independence from Britain. It was a revolution in human affairs. It was about bringing liberty to the world. Okay, it was about creating a new "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure." Okay? So the American Revolution is an experiment in the possibilities of human liberation. And the Civil War is meant to destroy this experiment. So we must persist in this experiment.

"We are met on a great battlefield of that war." Gettysburg. "We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground." The sacrifice of the men is what has made this land sacred. The sacrifice of these men is what makes our nation sacred. It's what saves our nation. "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly" Okay?

And this ends it. "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion." The men are dead. There's nothing we can do to resurrect them. It is our responsibility, of us the living, to honor the sacrifice and to continue the mission that they died for, which is to spread liberty throughout the world, to bring liberty into human civilization. "That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

So again, with Hamilton it's about empire, for Jefferson it's about democracy. There's a conflict, right? What Lincoln does, which is revolution, is say, "No, this is not a conflict because we are an empire of democracy." We are born in liberty, we fight for liberty, and we will spread liberty. All right? So this is a new concept in American history. Not only Not So, now America is not confined to the Western It has a responsibility to honor the dead, honor sacrifice by creating liberty throughout the world, to create a new chapter in human civilization.

Okay? That's the purpose of this speech. To heal America by reminding them of their divine mission to spread democracy and truth throughout the world. All right. So, after the Civil War, America is now industrializing rapidly. 1867, it buys Alaska from Russia.

1898, America fights the Spanish and they take over the Spanish colonies. So now America has become an imperial power. All right? America now controls the Philippines as well as Cuba.

World War I, America goes and defeats Germany. World War II is when America becomes the global hegemon of the world. And then after the Soviet Union fell, we now live in something called the Pax Americana. Okay? America is the greatest power in the world. They have complete Lincoln's vision of becoming an empire of democracy. We now live in the empire of democracy. All right? But the question then is, what is an empire of democracy? What is that? And so we go back to Oscar Wilde's quote. America is not a civilization.

All right? And what does he mean by this? To understand this, we have to read another book called Democracy in America by a Frenchman named Alexis de Tocqueville. This is the most famous book ever written about America. Okay? Not by an American, but by a Frenchman who visited America for maybe 8 months. In 1835, he publishes Democracy in America. And he's trying to explain why is it that American democracy works? And why is it destined to eventually conquer the world? All right. Now, there's a lot of debate about this book.

Hopefully you'll be able to read this book in college. It is a fantastic book. It's really one of the best books ever and it's a thousand pages. So it's possible for you to interpret the book in many different ways. But what I want to show you today is Alexis de Tocqueville actually is skeptical about American democracy. He is actually afraid of what the spreading of American liberty will mean for the world, okay? So the argument I will show you is America is really the first mass democratic middle class country, okay?

But because of that, the people there are selfish, conformist, and And he fears that as America conquers the world, the world will become atomized, uniform, and mediocre. Atomized just means that we live in our own little bubble. We don't really care about larger issues than ourselves. Uniform means everyone thinks the same way. And mediocre means that, well, no one's striving for greatness anymore. If you think about it, okay? The world we live in today, in the year 2025, this is the world we live in. It's an atomized, uniform, and mediocre world.

So how did this happen? How was it possible for the world to become like this? And for you to understand this, it's important to go back to the Dutch Republic. We discussed the Dutch Republic last week and talked about what it means to be middle class. Now, as I said last week, the middle class is distinct because it creates anxiety, uncertainty, and competition within the lives of individuals. Okay? Anxiety comes from the fact that your situation is never stable. You could be rich tomorrow, but you could be poor the next day.

This is different from history, where if you're born poor, you stay poor. If you're a noble person, you could have no money, but your stays with you, okay? And it passes on to your children and your grandchildren, okay? So there's a certainty in that world. But in this world, if you're a middle you could be a factory owner, you could be Jack Ma, and then the next day you get unlucky and you lose all your money, okay? And you're back to being a poor person. This creates anxiety and uncertainty.

Also, because status is not given, but it must be earned, there's competition among middle class members to strive for status, okay? And this creates something we call OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and it leads to an obsessive control of yourself, a focus on cleanliness, and a desire to accumulate and achieve, okay? And if you think about it, we discussed the memoir of Benjamin Franklin, right? Well, why is he focused on such a simple Why is he focused on earning so much money? Why does he constantly want to achieve? It's because of the anxiety of being middle class.

You're born poor, you earn a lot of money, you become wealthy, but how do you know you won't become poor? How do you know your children won't become poor? The only way to resolve this anxiety is by constantly accumulating more and All right. So let's look at Democracy in America, okay? Let's look at certain passages from Democracy in America to understand the thinking of de Tocqueville. All right. "Such a democratic society would be less brilliant than the aristocracy, but also less plagued by misery.

Pleasures would be less extreme, prosperity more general, knowledge would be less exalted, but ignorance more rare. Feelings would be less passionate and habits milder. There would be more vices and fewer crimes." Okay, this is actually a hard passage to understand. So what he is saying is this. In aristocratic societies, in most societies, there's a huge gap between the rich and the poor, okay? And there's a huge gap between the great and the mediocre. What democratic societies do is they take this system and they turn it into this system, okay? So the middle class, they're not that great, but they're not that poor, either, okay?

They're not as talented, but they're not as mediocre, okay? So you've taken this system, right? And you turn it into this system, and that's the theory of democracy. And in theory, this sounds better, okay? If you're just randomly into a democratic society, you're much more likely to live a happy life than if you were born into an aristocratic society, okay? So that's the theory.

De Tocqueville spent a lot of time looking at America, and he decided that's not what happened, okay? It's not like you went from this to this. It's like you went from this to, like, this, okay? All right. So he explains, "But what have we done? In rejecting the social state our ancestors and casting aside the institutions, ideas, and mores, what have we put in their place?" So what he's saying is the American Revolution was about destroying tradition, about destroying civilization, but they failed to build new traditions and new civilization.

"The prestige of world power has evaporated, but the majesty of the law has failed to take its place." Okay, this is key. Before, we worshiped a man, a king, and the king made us obedient to his law. We got rid of the king, and we said, "Well, let's keep the law." The problem is this. The problem is people respect and revere those who are to them. They do not respect and revere ideas and things and laws. Does that make sense? So in theory, America is a rule of law nation, but people don't really understand these laws and people don't revere these laws as much as they would a superior man.

"It strikes me that we have destroyed those individuals who once had the whip of all to battle tyranny on their own." So, in an aristocratic system, what will happen is you have these great individuals like Robespierre emerge to challenge the system and he's supported by others because others see the injustice of the system. But in a democracy, what happens is great individuals are oppressed by the conformity, the tyranny of the majority. Okay, does that make sense? Right? If everyone's happy, then you say and but if you come out and say, "Listen, this system is wrong," people will shut you down.

Right? In an aristocracy, everyone knows what's unjust. So if you come out and you speak what's unjust, people will follow you. But in a democracy, in a middle class which is conformist, you're not allowed to question popular opinion. And therefore no great men can arise. If you think about it, in America there aren't that many great Okay? It's a great country. It's very but think about how many great individuals have arisen. What's also unique about America is the people they worship are not generals, not leaders, but business people.

Henry Ford, Elon, Thomas Edison, right? These are all business people. That's who they "The poor man, for the most part, clings to his forebears' prejudices without their faith and to their ignorance without their virtues." Okay. So the Catholic Church was problematic, medieval Europe was problematic, but at least people knew how to live a good life. Now, if you're a poor person, you're at a complete loss in the system. Okay, you're expected to have your own virtues. You're expected to discover your own purpose in life.

If you don't, then you're alienated, okay? And this creates a huge problem that we'll discuss later on. All right, he continues. "I see men who in the name of progress seek to reduce men to material being." This is the ultimate problem in America. Before in civilization, you were asked to die for your nation. Now you're asked to go make money and buy things. Okay? Materialism. "They look for what is useful without concern for what is just. They seek science removed from faith and prosperity apart from virtue. Having styled themselves of modern civilization, they have arrogantly placed themselves at its head, usurping a position abandoned by others which they are quite" Okay, so in this system, the worst rise to power.

The best are trampled down by All right. All right. He continues. "I'm trying to imagine what new features despotism might have in today's world. I see an innumerable host of men all alike and equal, endlessly hastening after petty and vulgar pleasures with which they fill their souls. Over these men stand an immense tutelary power which assumes sole responsibility for securing the pleasures and watching over their fate." Think about the society that we live in today, the entire world. Before, we were asked to sacrifice ourselves for civilization. Before, we were asked to be great, to work together.

Now, we're asked to just buy things. Buying things will make us happy. And it's the responsibility of the government to ensure we can buy things. That's the world we live in today.

"It's impossible to believe that a liberal, energetic, and wise government can ever emerge from about our nation of servants." If you're a consumer, if all you concern is buying things, you are just a slave.

"The possibility of a constitution being republican in its head and also monarchical in all of its other parts has always struck me as an infernal monster." Okay, we think we live in a democracy. We think the government listens to us, but it's really the imperial bureaucracy that's in charge. And that's a monster. "The vice of those who govern and the imbecility of the governed would quickly bring about its ruin, and the people, tired of their representatives and of themselves, would either create free institutions or soon return to prostrating themselves at the feet of a single master."

Okay, so this is a prophecy. The prophecy is this, America, the way it is structured, the way it is conceived, is not sustainable in the long term. Either it will break apart in a civil war or a tyrant will emerge. It will become a monarchy. Okay, that is de Tocqueville's dark prophecy for So, America is again in competition with these other civilizations. All right, so what I will do now is just summarize what we've learned to give you a broad framework for understanding the nature of American society, okay?

I'm sorry. All right. So I apologize. I know that today was very fast, but let me just summarize what we've learned and you'll have a much clearer of the ideas today. All right. So, before, the focus on civilization. What is civilization? It is a history, values. Okay? And before, everyone understood the purpose of your life was to maintain, protect, and defend your Okay? But there are certain problems with civilization that emerge over time. The first, of course, is the idea of prejudice. You just believe that your civilization is superior to that of other civilizations.

Okay? Everyone believes this. My civilization is better, and my civilization is superior to yours. So this leads This is prejudice. It leads to war, violence. It leads to lack of innovation, openness. It's a stubbornness, inflexibility.

It also limits immigration. Does that make sense? Okay? This is the nature of civilization throughout most of human history. Now, this is a problem for America. Why? Because as I mentioned, America was founded by Right? It was also pretty Diversity, openness.

So these are the three characteristics of America. It's a very diverse place with different religions, different cultures. It's always going to welcome immigrants in order to build up its nation and wealth. And it has to be open because it needs to steal ideas from Europe, basically. All right? So now you have a Right? Civilization cannot solve these So, what do you do in order to create a society? What you do is, rather than build a civilization, you create a game.

Okay? In many ways, America is an anti-civilization. It's trying to remedy the failings and weaknesses of civilizations in the past. It decided, "We're going to create a game, guys. Okay?" That's the idea of the US Constitution. What's the game? The game is this. First of all, we need to have game masters. The game masters are the government. And the problem is for the game to work, it has to be fair. It has to be clean. Okay? It has to be winnable for people. Does that make sense? You only play games if you think the game is fair and it's winnable and it's rewarding, right?

It's transparent. Therefore, our government must be fair, transparent, and democratic. You get as many people to play the game as All right? Once the government is in place, now what we do is we create the rules for the game that are fair, just, and winnable, okay? So the purpose of this game is to make as much money as possible, okay? Material If you win this money, it's yours, okay? Private property. By law, whatever you have earned is yours forever. It's yours, but it's also your children's, okay?

Do you understand? This is a game that America has constructed. If you think about it, this is great because now you can bring in as many immigrants as you want. Because all they do is play this game. Everyone wants to play this game. It allows you to be open because it allows for rapid innovation within your Okay, it allows for diversity as well because everyone's striving to make as much money as possible.

So that's what America is. America sees itself as a new civilization, but it's really an anti-civilization because it's really a game. And over time what happened is because America is becoming more and more wealthy, it will be able to conquer the world and establish the game throughout the world. In China today, we are playing this game, right? What do we believe? We believe that we come to school because we need to get an education, go to America, get a degree so that we can become rich. When we become rich, we can buy things, right?

We're playing this game. We've all been brainwashed to play this game. The problem with this game is eventually the few will win everything. Does that make sense? You have massive inequality in the world. And when this happens, people are like, "This game sucks. What do we do now?" And then people will be like, "You know what? I miss civilization. I miss when it was clear what my identity was. When it was clear what I had to do in life. When I was asked to make sacrifices for the greater good. I miss that.

I'm nostalgic for that." And of course, this is what gives us Ultimately, MAGA is about trying to restore the idea of civilization in Make America great again. Make America into a white Christian democratic nation again. Let us restore the vision of Thomas Jefferson.

All right? Okay. That's it. So this is just an introduction to America. We'll continue this topic as we move further and further along the course, okay? So next week we will do the German and Russian civilizations. What you will see is that in many ways these civilizations are far superior to the Anglo-American empire. All right? So, any questions?