On Independence Day, Honor the Founders by Improving Their Work

It’s time for the public to take responsibility for its own independence.

Growing up across America – in South Carolina, Colorado, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Maine, Missouri, Georgia, Illinois, and California – no matter where we spent our summers, we always celebrated Independence Day, and the Founding Fathers who made it happen. It was a wonder to us younger kids, how a song and a flag could force tears from the eyes of even our crustiest elders. But we would learn, in time, about the Founders’ inspiring courage, their wisdom, and their care in laying the foundations for the society we still call home.  

The Founder’s Declaration of Independence – 240 years ago – was truly epic. Since the beginnings of human agriculture some 10,000 years earlier, civilizations had been ruled by whichever families were able to create and consistently distribute surplus food in exchange for political loyalty. Those ‘royal’ families had amassed considerable technology and experience administering populations and waging war. So, even as the 18th century’s emerging class of capitalists began to seek increased input in decision-making, Old World rulers were unconcerned about the rabble of upstart farmers across the Atlantic. There was no way they were going to successfully form their own government. It just wasn’t going to happen.

But then it did happen. And that is why despite every difficulty we’ve experienced as a nation from then till now, the words of the Declaration resonate so deeply in our minds and hearts. The history we commemorate on July 4th marks one of the most deeply beautiful moments in all of human history – the fierce and fragile emergence of a mass democracy humans are still struggling to perfect.

The Founders were not without their flaws. They participated in the soul-twisting institution of slavery and reproduced the sort of agrarian patriarchy that had prevailed for the 10,000 years before their time. But there is little doubt that they kicked off a flowering of individual freedom that continues to improve the human condition into the present day. For that – and the personal courage it required – they deserve the reverence we feel.

We would do well to follow the Founders’ example.

I like to imagine Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and Washington here with us today smiling upon their creation. Surely, they would be amazed that our nation has expanded so much – from sea to shining sea – and that we have become the world’s predominant economic and military power. Today’s America must exceed their wildest imaginations. But would these brilliant and accomplished social entrepreneurs simply pat themselves on the backs? Or would they have more to say? More to do?

For decades, we have been obsessed with the optimization of society – as the Founders surely were – and it is difficult for us to imagine these creative titans feeling like their work is complete. Would they not busy themselves trying to solve today’s greatest challenges – economic, social, and spiritual? And would they not stand agape at the outsized influence of political parties they had explicitly warned against? Our first two presidents could not have been clearer:

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. – George Washington

There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution. – John Adams

So, would they contentedly smile upon their creation and return to their heavenly repose? We think not. These humans were accomplished problem solvers who designed an entire society under hostile circumstances. They would roll up their sleeves and get to work.

It is a shallow reverence for our ancestors that calls their masterworks complete. For their aim was never merely the survival of their documents. Their aim was the improvement of Democracy. In gesturing to the former, we have forsaken the latter. We have neglected the harder, more important work – the work to which they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

It is a shallow reverence for our ancestors that calls their masterworks sacred and finished.

So, let’s honor the Founders by doing what they would do: let’s design a better way of living together. Let’s re-constitute society.

This won’t happen overnight. It took the Founders eleven years to finish their Constitution – a time that included a lot of research and reflection into human nature and a lot of deliberation and design-thinking about how to improve it. In today’s speak, they were crafting a massive social network designed to better serve the needs of a broader set of users. If that time-warping jargon feels jarring, just think how much better equipped we are for the job. We are awash in social data; research technology is flourishing; and mass, networked communication is, if anything, too easy.

All the tools we need are at our fingertips. We can use our Internet to cooperate and deliberate. We can organize social services through networked nonprofits. We can encourage local and even voluntary governmental units to set some policies, so we don’t have to agree about every last detail affecting our daily lives. And when we do come together to decide policy, we needn’t do so through politicians. We can thoroughly discuss, deliberate, and decide each issue independently.

Will there be design challenges and tradeoffs if we begin providing more of our own governance? Certainly. Will there be bumps along the road? Of course. But ask yourself if that stopped the Founders. Did they give up? Right now, in a world teeming with resources, and technology designed to connect people, we should be experiencing a flourishing of democracy. And we will.