Happy Birthday United States of America
“America's founding ideal was the principle of individual rights. Nothing more—and nothing less. The rest—everything that America achieved, everything she became, everything "noble and just," and heroic, and great, and unprecedented in human history—was the logical consequence of fidelity to that one principle. The first consequence was the principle of political freedom, i.e., an individual's freedom from physical compulsion, coercion or interference by the government. The next was the economic implementation of political freedom: the system of capitalism.”
The above quote is by Leonard Peikoff, a proponent of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism.
If you kept up with my Substack letters, then you know about my praise and also my criticism of America. I wrote about Alexis de Tocqueville’s incredibly insightful observation of early America. His “Democracy in America” should be required reading in High School. I wrote about Maryanne Datesman’s Six Basic American Cultural Values which she arranged in 3 pairs: Individual Freedom and Self-Reliance. Equality of Opportunity and Competition, The American Dream and Hard Work. I also wrote critically of events going on in America. My harshest criticism, of recent, was of President Trump’s foreign policy dealings. But criticizing America isn’t the topic I want to dwell on here.
The Western Civilization is the dominant culture in the world. Its seed was planted in ancient Greece and Rome and two thousand years later germinated in Europe and notably flourished in Italy. There the philosophy of reason replaced the “Devine Rights of Kings” with “Individual Rights”. Thus, initiating the most important period in human history, the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution began in Western Europe and matured in America. In Europe, England was the center of the Revolution. And it was primarily the English-speaking Anglo-Saxon settlers to America that were responsible for the incredible technological advancement that changed the world in the most positive and profound way. Prosperity increased where average income more than doubled. Humans doubled their life spans. Up to half of children born during the Dark Ages died. Now with better food and medical care, most survived. Fuel-powered machines increased productivity a hundred times over manual labor.
America leads the West, and the West owns its preset dominance in the world to theories, principles, discoveries and inventions that came from the Industrial Revolution. I challenge you to discover for yourselves. You’ll find that during that period a great number of theories, discoveries and inventions that you can think of came from the Industrial Revolution period. Every major field of science, from Astronomy to Zoology, flourished and matured to provide a foundation for our modern sciences.
Check out inventions and discoveries during the 1700’s and 1800’s, the Industrial Revolution period, and note who and where the inventions happened. The Locomotive, the Automobile, the Airplane, are some of the most important ones. Around your house: washing machine, dryer, toaster, mower, spring mattress. Then there’s the telephone and Edison’s light bulb and hundreds of his other inventions.
America became the most prosperous and successful country that has ever existed. It was the elements of Capitalism which generated its economic power. China is the second biggest economy. Its success is also the result of Capitalist elements in its economy. That’s right, China is not the economic powerhouse because of its Communist government. China is successful because its Communist leaders allow their economy a certain amount of economic freedom. I.e. Capitalism. More about China in future letters.