On Evolutive Hypocrisy: Our American Birthright

Constancy has never been our strength, rather, our ability to be and remain utterly inconsistent has made us what we have very proudly become. One people’s hypocrisy is another’s, well, … dogma.

A fascinating early historical example occurred shortly after what in what became the original thirteen states was referred to as the French and Indian War. Representatives of the various colonies were convened to gather in 1754 at Albany to discuss plans for dealings with indigenous Americans and colonists from other European states, mainly France. Exceeding the authority granted by their sponsoring states (something that was to become a tradition), these “representatives” developed a plan of semi-union limited to intercolonial affairs. Knowing that their sponsoring states would not accept it, they petitioned the British Parliament to impose it upon the colonies they purported to represent. The British Parliament, respecting the desires of the actual colonies, declined to interfere.

The fascinating aspect involves the fact that among such creative dissidents were many men who would be counted among the leaders of the rebellion against the British Parliament twenty years later, the “Founding Fathers”. Chief among them, our beloved Benjamin Franklin.

The more things change the more they stay the same, … or so they say.

Interesting to speculate on the specifics of what “things” are alluded to and just who “they” are.
_______

© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2017; all rights reserved