The Declaration of Independence asserts that the citizens of the united States of that time were a people, essentially defining that term, and that their remedy for the abuses attributable to the King of Great Britain was to separate themselves from another people, those under the King’s authority. But it is a myth that the colonists constituted a monolithic people, and it is a question as to what that phrase could even mean. Even the Representatives of the 13 colonies were united primarily in their opposition to the monarchy and its colonial policies. It is hard to answer, without a long and detailed exploration of the history of those times, which has been done elsewhere, by others, what else may have been of common interest to the residents of those colonies?
Today the interest groups among residents of the United States are multi-centric and non-aligned, and multiple. There are some in this country who want to return to a state religion. Others seriously want to reinstate slavery, or at least a form of less than full citizenship for African Americans and other non-white groups. Yet another sizable faction wants to secede from the United States, partly for the above reasons but also due to a form of tax revolt. Other examples, and there are more, water revolts in the Northwest, some in California want to separate themselves from the State. Each of these groups attempt to brand themselves as “the American people”!
According to one school of political theory, a people behave in cohesive fashion when they agree on and subscribe to a set of beliefs, the bulk of which are common among them. There is something called cultural hegemony which attempts to describe the way people put their loyalty on other people who express those same beliefs. Cultural hegemony is reciprocal when it works; leaders represent the views of the majority while the majority accepts and represents the same views. You could think of a sports team, its fans, cheerleaders and team members. They all cohere into a belief system about the sport and the team. Any lack of loyalty to the team draws negative attention, perhaps violence.
Cultural hegemony is not only reciprocal, it has an enforcement mechanism too. Someone who aspires to leadership cannot vary too much from the common view of things or their attempt at leadership won’t be rewarded by “followership”. Anyone in the community who doesn’t endorse the current leader, ergo seems to not share the beliefs of the group, are criticized, ignored, demonized or ejected. Again, sometimes violently. Not only within sports teams but in many aspects of life, in this tit-for-tat fashion, belief systems are articulated and maintained. It is very hard to make a change in the belief systems because the first step in change is to identify and articulate something undesirable. People don’t want to hear that their favorite beliefs are not perfect and whole. Thus, in today’s world, particularly in the political and economic spheres, we have “echo chambers” that exist primarily (or have been created) to reinforce what people already believe. Culture evolves perhaps, but only slowly.
One wonders how many residents of the original 13 colonies other than the 56 signers of the Declaration actually believed in all the asserted rights of man? Has the general opinion in this country changed much, or were all of today’s controversies present from the very beginning? It seems likely that they were, and it raises the question about why in recent years the beliefs, the voices and the acts of so many factions are non-aligned with the founding principles of the United States? Has this country always been nothing more than a “marriage of convenience” within which many residents never actually believed in the “American Dream”? It is scary to ask these questions, and I don’t know how to answer them…
(Next time, an exploration of how Donald Trump exploits cultural hegemony.)
Thank you for writing.
I’m just hypothesizing, but it seems the framers could have intended the “people” to survive their inherited position and leave the tools in the form of the law for the future “people” to evolve/ figure out how to do the same.