Notice of New Management
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776 .
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one [group of rich, white men] to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the [assumptions of white Christianity] entitle them, a decent respect to [their realm of power] requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [white] men [in the top 5% of society] 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 [and the privilege to deny said rights to anyone they so choose].
--That to secure these rights, Governments are [wrested from other] Men, deriving their just powers from the [subjugation and oppression] of the governed,
--That whenever any [foreign] Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the [Duty] of the [poor] People to alter or to abolish it, and [the rich] to institute new [domestic] Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them (the rich) shall seem most likely to [preserve] their [Wealth].
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that [the not-rich] are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce [rich men] under [taxes to the cost of even a small portion of their wealth], it is [the rich’s] right, it is their duty, to [convince the poor to] throw off such Government, and to provide new [brain-washed cannon-fodder] for their future security.
--Such has been the patient sufferance of these [fifty-six rich, white men]; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, [which We wish now to commit ourselves on our own people], all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world [that we will continue and improve on the King’s good work.]
[We shall] refuse [our] Assent to [our own] Laws, [especially] the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
[We shall] refuse to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people.
[We shall let legislative bodies read the phone book endlessly, thus blocking the entire political process.]
[Our new Representative House will themselves put forward invasions on the rights of the people.]
[We will allow foreigners to arrive, work for a few years, and then kill them by mistreatment, violence, or disease.]
[We shall create a whore of Justice, to serve the desires of the rich.]
[We will let rich, white men pay all of our Judiciary officials.]
[We shall] establish New Offices of our own, and send [hither] swarms of our Officers to murder [other peoples], and eat out [their natural resources.]
[We will, in times of peace, stand armies in other countries, and force consent from said country’s legislatures.]
[We shall put the Military under the thumb of the Executive, who will be under the thumb of the rich.]
[We shall] combine with [big business] to subject [our people] to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving [our] Assent to [our] Acts of [bribed] Legislation:
[We shall] Quarter large bodies of armed troops among [buildings our friends received the contracts to build.]
[We shall allow our citizens to only get away with murdering browns and blacks.]
[We shall heavily tax] our Trade with all parts of the world.
[We shall not allow anyone but the rich to vote, and then impose taxes on everyone else.]
[We shall] deprive [people] in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury
[We shall] transport [people to
[We shall] abolish the free System of [democratic elections] in neighboring [Latin America], establishing therein Arbitrary government[s], and enlarging [their] Boundaries so as to render [them] at once an example and fit instrument for introducing [new wealth] into these [rich men’s wallets]:
[We shall] plunder our seas, ravage our Coasts, burn our towns, and destroy the lives of our people.
[We are] at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
[We have] excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and [have] endeavored to bring [to] the inhabitants of our frontiers, the [Native Americans we constantly cheat], [Our] known rule of warfare: an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions [our people] have Petitioned [from us a] Redress in the most humble terms: [Their] repeated Petitions [shall be] answered only by repeated injury. A [Politician] whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is [fit] to be the ruler of [these
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our [poorer] brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their [rabble-rousers] to extend an unwarrantable [equality between] us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the [lies] of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our [profit margin]. They too have been deaf to [our] voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, [fodder] in War, in Peace [slaves].
We, therefore, the Representatives of the [top 5% of the] United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of [ourselves], solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to [invent] War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which [Tyrants] may of right do [to their people]. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine
I like the original better. It has more room for interpreting it as the idealistic document it was intended to be. You could have just posted the Constitution here, in its entirety -- it's at least conservative in its original form. The purpose of the Declaration was to stir everyone up, to make them feel their chains more keenly (especially the lower classes) and to foist the blame for their troubles on a foreign tyrant. It served its purpose quite well and could serve the same purpose again someday. But it doesn't require revision -- what it requires is some honest-to-goodness historical context.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who is fairly familiar with the context, I find this revision upsetting. You've taken one of the most idealistic documents from our history, one that can be used to show students how quickly we turned from righteous to hypocritical, and you de-contextualized it and turned it into something snide.
The founding fathers weren't gods, but they weren't evil either. They were, on the other hand, self-interested men. That's the kind of nuance that Zinn goes for and his regard for these extremely bright men is pretty apparent. He sees no reason why we can't revere some of their smarter decisions while questioning their self-interested ones and I agree with him.
In short, I wonder what your purpose was in doing this. What's the context for your revision and who is the audience? Any American who is paying attention will see the hypocrisy oozing from the original text -- s/he won't need a revision to see what's plain as day; those who aren't paying attention aren't worth your time or you won't reach them anyway. And as a teacher, I've learned that no amount of anger or disgust will make them see the contradictions that make some of us ill.
Anyway, this was an interesting exercise -- next time, for your audience, consider posting the original side by side with your revision.
Cheers!
The point of the post was to show that the Declaration was never righteous, and the Founding Fathers were hypocritical from the beginning: a set pattern for the entirety of American history.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the point of rebellion against the British if the new American leadership was going to immediately turn around and oppress the American people EVEN MORE?
This post, as with all my posts, was an exercise in self-discovery. I was raised to believe that my nation, the United States of America, was the best nation in the world: the most noble, the most good.
Since, I have discovered that America has been one of the greatest evils the world has ever experienced. Not because the American government is somehow more evil than other governments, which is not true (for all governments go about evil actions), but because the American government has simply been one of the most powerful elements in human history, and thus is capable of committing greater atrocity; mostly through apathy, ignorance, and blatant racism.
And this is not direct atrocity like genocide (though the USA has committed several of those, but since they were not efficiently organized like Hilter's, we ignore them), but the basic, day-to-day evil of creating slaves of the poor for hundreds of years, of consistently ignoring the basic needs of the small for the greater glory of the mighty.
Our nation is a scum on this Earth, and I hope to bring this to everyone's attention for the express purpose of FIXING IT. I REFUSE to let my government continue its moronic policies of fruitless nationalism, I REFUSE to let another pointless war occur like the ones in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I was told America was the best nation in the world. I just was never told that is a fiction that has yet to be tugged into reality. I want to do the tugging, and this post was supposed to be one step on that path. (Not that I thought anyone actually reads my writing besides my buddy, Paz.)
And I disagree: the Founding Fathers WERE evil. They were slave owners. And anyone who has ever owned a slave is evil in my book. The idea that we "accept" slave ownership for "the culture of the time" is a philosophy of excuse, pure and simple. Then, they sent thousands of men to their deaths for their own economic gains, usually without adequate clothing and/or armament. And those that survived the war, they fucked over by not giving them the land they promised them (usually buying it themselves or giving it to their cronies), or the land belonged to Indians and was not theirs to give away anyway.
Finally: Why post the original Declaration in the shitty formatting of Blogspot when any person who has intelligence enough to access my blog has equal intelligence to type "Declaration of Independence" into Google.
I wasn't defending the owning of another human being and, like you, I don't think that "everyone was doing it" or "Those were the times," are adequate excuses. Your criteria for evil is a lot broader than mine, though. I'm not willing to dismiss the accomplishments of everyone before me because they owned slaves, for example. Maybe that's just me. I'm willing to see and look for shades of gray. That's where all the meat is anyway.
ReplyDeleteSure, they have the intelligence for Google. I"m just saying that an exercise like this one works better when the two texts are side by side.
And I see where you're coming from, but I don't hate the founding fathers; they're not worth the energy. I save my ire for people who are alive and might actually do something to change when they encounter it. But shit, it's all fruitless anyway.
I hate the Founding Fathers because people invoke their names everyday to justify political policies which blatantly fuck over the common American.
ReplyDeleteWhy shouldn't we give the poor health care? The Founding Fathers didn't want us to!
Why should we remove all financial regulation, so our nation can continue its constant, needless cycle of boom and bust? Because the Founding Fathers hated financial regulation! Of course! (an utter falsehood as people ignore Hamilton).
I hate them, and I continue to hate them, because most of the "white" in your area of "grey" is myth and legend, while the "black" is very real.
I also don't wish to see it as a fruitless endeavor. Before Obama, Carter, Reagan, and Bush were all voted into office by only about 27% of eligible voting age Americans. The apathy and disillusionment from the 60s and 70s has somehow passed down to the new generations. Being that Carter, Reagan, and Bush teamed up to nearly triple the distance between America's rich and poor, watching 1/3 of all black infants in cities like Detroit die from malnutrition and not giving a fuck; it's time to be aware, and its time to demand morality.
Hell, if the working class of the late 1800s and 1900s could change the face of America against a system entirely devoted to their exploitation by the top 5%, if they could battle for nearly a hundred years against a legal system that protected the rights of the rich to kill their employees through neglect or small pay, then we can sure as hell start doing something again today.