"The divine right of kings, divine right, or God's mandate is a political and religious doctrine of royal and political legitimacy. It stems from a specific metaphysical framework in which the king (or queen) is pre-selected as an heir prior to their birth. By pre-selecting the king's physical manifestation, the governed populace actively (rather than merely passively) hands the metaphysical selection of the king's soul – which will inhabit the body and thereby rule them – over to God. In this way, the "divine right" originates as a metaphysical act of humility or submission towards the Godhead."While the Declaration of Independence uses words like 'Creator' it only mention's God once, and then it is "Nature's God."
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people 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 Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.The Declaration then goes on to talk about 'consent of the governed.'
"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's a break from being anointed via the Divine Right of Kings. The colonists weren't without precedent. Medieval barons had forced concessions from an English King centuries before with the Magna Carta.
That "the governed," by the time the Constitution was written, didn't include women, men without property, or Native Americans, or Africans raises questions about the ideals. Though as we know from modern times, politics requires compromise, and if all the colonies were going to be in this new union together, resolving the conflict by abolishing [slavery] was not a negotiable item for slave owners.
The NYTimes has a podcast up called 1619 (link to Apple podcasts) - the date the first shipment of slaves arrived in the colonies - that attempts to tell the history from a black perspective. Adam Serwer has an Atlantic article that outlines the controversy it's raised among some prominent historians.
Hope you've been able to safely enjoy this holiday and that our nature imposed restrictions enabled you to ponder it in a new light.
Indeed, it did. In the UK, our PM declared our 4th of July as our 'Independence Day'-- that day-of-days when Covid-19 distancing restrictions were eased -- that day we can now ALL GO BACK TO THE PUB!!
ReplyDeleteOur country's populist leader left Oxford with a degree in classics. He is a political writer of some ability who often lifts plucky phrases from a glorious past for our unfortunate present -- our particular present having become known as the 'Age of Brexit' (AKA the flight of reason).
For those of us on the leftier (surrender) side of the political spectrum (having voted to remain in the EU is slave mentality to Brexit patriots), we listen to Brexiters banging on about trade with the USA, to trade freely everywhere except Europe. Let's just say we divorced our aspiration to form a closer political union in Europe. So Brexit = Independence (and how a British prime minister can talk of our 'Independence Day' with no irony intended).
There is much more being done in light of our search for this reclaimed independence, but for many of us who also read history, we see it not so much as gaining independence, but thumbing our noses at Europe once again, as Henry VIII did in the 16th c to secure a quicky divorce. His divine right meant we left Europe and its contestable Catholic Pope.
So we Brits LOVE our independence, just like Americans do. Too bad about those little spats between us. Let's do better this time in our new & glorious partnership.
To our mutual love of independence!