Did the Founding Fathers Sow the Seeds of Our Destruction?
Bill Falzett III
March 31, 2008
Our founding fathers gave us a government that meets our basic needs extremely well. In so doing, they may have inadvertently sown the seeds of its destruction.
In the last century, Psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed an enlightening theory of human motivation in which he detailed a Hierarchy of Needs. In very simple terms, Maslow suggested our needs can be arranged into five discreet groups: Physiological; Safety; Love and Belonging; Esteem; and Self Actualization. Often depicted as a pyramid, these categories of needs form successive layers that build upon the layers beneath. Fundamental to this model is the notion that the lower needs are essential to survival, and once they are satisfied, our physical and mental resources are freed up to focus on the higher ones, ultimately leading to self-actualization. In my estimation, Maslow's model is a good one if you assume that self-actualization is the goal of human life.
I will use a simple example to illustrate the hierarchy in action: Imagine a pioneer to the new world in the 17th century. He would have arrived on the shores of an untamed land with little more than the clothes on his back. He would immediately have set about making sure he had a stock of edible food, and potable water, and then gotten some sleep, in essence meeting his basic physiological needs. Next he would have built a shelter to protect himself from the elements, and possibly a stockade and fortifications to protect from the invasion of wild animals and hostile natives. Once he had this measure of security in place he might have sought a mate, hopefully along with love, family and a sense of community with other pioneers in his area. With his basic needs met, and his family safe, he likely would have undertaken to establish himself as an asset to his community. He would have taken a trade, created a product, or offered some service of value to the community, with which to barter, and to acquire wealth and conveniences. His achievement in his chosen field, and the appreciation of his clientèle and community would have satisfied his need for esteem. At the end of his day, if he had any energy left, he might have begun to study, read poetry, listen to music, share stories, or simply to ponder the meaning of life.
Eventually there would have come a point where our pioneer had many neighbors, and his needs and wants would have begun to come into conflict with those of his neighbors, and with the rest of the world. He might have experienced invasions by hostile natives, encroachments on his land by people of other nations, and eventually suffered the ire and tyranny of a distant monarch. In such circumstances, he might have begun to consider a cooperative arrangement with his fellow pioneers that would give him greater security from outside enemies, and the ability to live in harmony with others around him.
Just such a progression played out during the birth of our nation, and culminated when our pioneering founding fathers came together to declare their independence from Britain and their intention to unite as a confederation of free and independent states:
"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, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
This Preamble to the Declaration of Independence set the stage for a central government designed to bolster individual citizens efforts at meeting the basic needs Maslow describes. The founding fathers concepts of the unalienable rights of Safety, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness map well to the hierarchy of needs. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights later built upon this groundwork to further support our basic needs by detailing our rights, and by protecting us from government itself by limiting the scope of its authority, and separating its powers. These documents are unambiguous regarding the intended role of government to protect the liberty of citizens to conduct their lives in safety and to enjoy the pursuit of happiness. To this day our government mostly does what they intended, and together we have grown into the most powerful and secure nation on earth. Our unemployment is low, our standard of living is high, and the threat of danger from outside enemies is extremely low. The general welfare is adequately provided for, and we are extraordinarily free to pursue happiness.
A consequence of having our basic needs satisfied, is that our time and energy are then free to for use in the pursuit of higher human needs. For many of us, this amounts to having too much time on our hands to engage in unproductive activities and downright mischief. Furthermore these unproductive activities are protected by our constitutional rights. How about some examples?: In the exercise of free speech, we spend countless hours tearing each other's ideologies down, fighting across polarized perspectives, and infighting within ideologies. One such rift resulted in a little conflict you may recall: The Civil War. We debate what the framers meant, we interpret and reinterpret in an attempt to extend the philosophy to apply to modern circumstances, and to situations it was never intended to address. In the exercise of the right to bear arms, and the proliferation of cheap handguns, the lawless threaten our safety and the safety of our families, while their attorneys devise crafty strategies to manipulate our legal system, putting dangerous criminals back on the streets to further threaten our safety. In the exercise of free religion, we have faithful who instead of celebrating their respective faiths in the privacy of their homes or places of worship, push their faith based values into our classrooms and onto our society at large, in effect denying others a similar freedom to believe and exercise that which they see fitting to their pursuit of happiness. We are also free to elect officials who grow our government into an all-intrusive entity, in exchange for a little more personal security. Our constitutional freedoms, when exercised in these ways, threaten our liberty and security from within.
Our government was instituted with checks and balances to provide for the common defense from outside enemies, to guarantee our safety by preserving our lives, and to preserve our liberty and freedom from tyranny and from one another. It was never intended as a massive all-encompassing safety net and source of welfare that could tax, spend and redistribute the wealth we have created indiscriminately. Let us appreciate how our government does provide for basic needs, and how it leaves us free to do what we can to provide for the balance of our needs, and ultimately self-actualization. Our founding fathers did a good thing in founding a country that has effectively provided for the basic needs of its citizens. Let us not pervert their intentions by destructive dissent, exploitation and perversion of our constitutional protections and by expecting government to provide for our every need. Together, we can get back to basics and nip these potentially destructive seeds in the bud.
In the last century, Psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed an enlightening theory of human motivation in which he detailed a Hierarchy of Needs. In very simple terms, Maslow suggested our needs can be arranged into five discreet groups: Physiological; Safety; Love and Belonging; Esteem; and Self Actualization. Often depicted as a pyramid, these categories of needs form successive layers that build upon the layers beneath. Fundamental to this model is the notion that the lower needs are essential to survival, and once they are satisfied, our physical and mental resources are freed up to focus on the higher ones, ultimately leading to self-actualization. In my estimation, Maslow's model is a good one if you assume that self-actualization is the goal of human life.
I will use a simple example to illustrate the hierarchy in action: Imagine a pioneer to the new world in the 17th century. He would have arrived on the shores of an untamed land with little more than the clothes on his back. He would immediately have set about making sure he had a stock of edible food, and potable water, and then gotten some sleep, in essence meeting his basic physiological needs. Next he would have built a shelter to protect himself from the elements, and possibly a stockade and fortifications to protect from the invasion of wild animals and hostile natives. Once he had this measure of security in place he might have sought a mate, hopefully along with love, family and a sense of community with other pioneers in his area. With his basic needs met, and his family safe, he likely would have undertaken to establish himself as an asset to his community. He would have taken a trade, created a product, or offered some service of value to the community, with which to barter, and to acquire wealth and conveniences. His achievement in his chosen field, and the appreciation of his clientèle and community would have satisfied his need for esteem. At the end of his day, if he had any energy left, he might have begun to study, read poetry, listen to music, share stories, or simply to ponder the meaning of life.
Eventually there would have come a point where our pioneer had many neighbors, and his needs and wants would have begun to come into conflict with those of his neighbors, and with the rest of the world. He might have experienced invasions by hostile natives, encroachments on his land by people of other nations, and eventually suffered the ire and tyranny of a distant monarch. In such circumstances, he might have begun to consider a cooperative arrangement with his fellow pioneers that would give him greater security from outside enemies, and the ability to live in harmony with others around him.
Just such a progression played out during the birth of our nation, and culminated when our pioneering founding fathers came together to declare their independence from Britain and their intention to unite as a confederation of free and independent states:
"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, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
This Preamble to the Declaration of Independence set the stage for a central government designed to bolster individual citizens efforts at meeting the basic needs Maslow describes. The founding fathers concepts of the unalienable rights of Safety, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness map well to the hierarchy of needs. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights later built upon this groundwork to further support our basic needs by detailing our rights, and by protecting us from government itself by limiting the scope of its authority, and separating its powers. These documents are unambiguous regarding the intended role of government to protect the liberty of citizens to conduct their lives in safety and to enjoy the pursuit of happiness. To this day our government mostly does what they intended, and together we have grown into the most powerful and secure nation on earth. Our unemployment is low, our standard of living is high, and the threat of danger from outside enemies is extremely low. The general welfare is adequately provided for, and we are extraordinarily free to pursue happiness.
A consequence of having our basic needs satisfied, is that our time and energy are then free to for use in the pursuit of higher human needs. For many of us, this amounts to having too much time on our hands to engage in unproductive activities and downright mischief. Furthermore these unproductive activities are protected by our constitutional rights. How about some examples?: In the exercise of free speech, we spend countless hours tearing each other's ideologies down, fighting across polarized perspectives, and infighting within ideologies. One such rift resulted in a little conflict you may recall: The Civil War. We debate what the framers meant, we interpret and reinterpret in an attempt to extend the philosophy to apply to modern circumstances, and to situations it was never intended to address. In the exercise of the right to bear arms, and the proliferation of cheap handguns, the lawless threaten our safety and the safety of our families, while their attorneys devise crafty strategies to manipulate our legal system, putting dangerous criminals back on the streets to further threaten our safety. In the exercise of free religion, we have faithful who instead of celebrating their respective faiths in the privacy of their homes or places of worship, push their faith based values into our classrooms and onto our society at large, in effect denying others a similar freedom to believe and exercise that which they see fitting to their pursuit of happiness. We are also free to elect officials who grow our government into an all-intrusive entity, in exchange for a little more personal security. Our constitutional freedoms, when exercised in these ways, threaten our liberty and security from within.
Our government was instituted with checks and balances to provide for the common defense from outside enemies, to guarantee our safety by preserving our lives, and to preserve our liberty and freedom from tyranny and from one another. It was never intended as a massive all-encompassing safety net and source of welfare that could tax, spend and redistribute the wealth we have created indiscriminately. Let us appreciate how our government does provide for basic needs, and how it leaves us free to do what we can to provide for the balance of our needs, and ultimately self-actualization. Our founding fathers did a good thing in founding a country that has effectively provided for the basic needs of its citizens. Let us not pervert their intentions by destructive dissent, exploitation and perversion of our constitutional protections and by expecting government to provide for our every need. Together, we can get back to basics and nip these potentially destructive seeds in the bud.