What made our revolution
different?
jewishworldreview.com --
After 223 years -- and William J. Clinton
notwithstanding -- America is still the most
successful experiment going.
Among other things, the American revolution
demonstrated that majorities are frequently
wrong, a fact worth recalling in an age of
focus-group worship.
Historians tell us that the colonists were evenly
divided in favor of, against and ambivalent
toward independence. If Gallup had been around
in 1776, we'd be driving on the wrong side of the
road and obsessing about the royal family.
Unlike all men, all revolutions are not created
equal. What makes ours unique?
There were three revolutions that profoundly
influenced the course of human events: the
American, French and Russian. The first
transformed the world; the latter deformed it.
The best revolutions are made by elites -- men of
property and learning with a sense of service.
The French and Russian revolutions soon fell into
the hands of bloody-minded fanatics. Jacobins
and Bolsheviks -- these are not names that
inspire confidence.
America's was a revolution of words (albeit
defended by the sword), epitomized by the
Declaration of Independence and Constitution,
and lesser works like "The Federalist Papers"
and "Common Sense."
It wasn't ink that flowed in the streets of Paris and St. Petersburg. If our
revolutionary era was symbolized by a quill pen, theirs would best be
represented by Madame la Guillotine and a Cheka firing squad.
Those who make revolution reluctantly do so most wisely.
With a few exceptions, the Founding Fathers came to accept the
necessity of a break with the mother country late in the game. Even after
the Intolerable Acts, Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill, it took months
of debate to get a resolution of independence through the Second
Continental Congress.
Revolutions with narrow goals -- those that eschew grand utopian visions
and settle for modest improvement of the human condition -- work best.
Madison, Adams and their associates didn't aim to overhaul society or
remake human nature. They were wise enough to understand that, like
inalienable rights, our nature is endowed by the Creator.
Mere mortals, and the Founders never pretended to be more, understand
they are incapable of giving people new hearts.
The most Founding Fathers aspired to was an orderly society, governed
justly (where state interference in human affairs is minimum), where
property rights are respected and individuals can work, play and pray
pretty much as they choose.
Marat and Robespierre, Lenin and Trotsky saw humanity as clay on the
potter's wheel. The Paris commune, the Terror, collective farms, purge
trials and gulags all were ghastly attempts to fashion a new Eden.
If that weren't enough, French and Russian radicals felt compelled to
export their glorious revolutions, on the point of a bayonet, to those who
fiercely resisted the favor.
By contrast, the generation of 1776 said to the world: "Well, here it is.
We wish you well. Look to us for inspiration, not liberation." The
most-quoted line from Washington's farewell address is his warning
about entangling alliances.
Finally, the American revolution had a spiritual foundation. The
Declaration of Independence appealed to "the Supreme Judge of the
World" and affirmed the colonists "firm reliance on the protection of
divine Providence."
The French and Russian revolutions were unalterably opposed not just to
religious expression but to the very idea of a power above the party or
state.
Jacobins attacked the Catholic Church, murdered clerics and erected a
Goddess of Reason. The communists made atheism an official state
dogma. Heaven distributed its blessings -- and maledictions --
accordingly.
Consider the aftermath of the three revolutions.
Both communism and fascism were forged in the fires of revolutionary
France. The revolution of 1789 led directly to Napoleon, a resurrection
of the monarchy, a second empire and a series of unstable republics,
culminating in a nation known principally for its cuisine.
Russia suffered 70 years under Bolshevism, with untold millions dead,
and spread its blight to half of Europe.
America shaped the 20th century, created the greatest industrial engine in
history and saved humanity from the twin totalitarian
And the future? That depends on how well we recall the lessons of our
revolution and what distinguishes it from those that failed.
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