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| The harvest. |
Later, lunching at a well-known
chain restaurant across the river in Hoboken, a small, hunched man with a wild
white beard and simple knit hat and rumpled, soiled clothing, eats standing up.
Looking like a creature from “The Hobbit,” he performs quick, obsessive,
ritualistic manipulation of his food and drink, finally eviscerating the
sandwich and devouring the filling. He is closely watched but outwardly ignored
by other diners, cautiously watchful nearby.
It is a matter of great, learned,
debate, whether God exists, and if so, which one.
But it matters not. These people,
the least among us, are equally imbued with human rights. Whether God-given or
inherited from the Universe, these are fully human creatures, not less than any
of us.
At the other end of the privilege
spectrum are the highly educated, the trained, the cultured, the deep thinkers.
And they care, deeply. And know that they can improve the lives of us all, if
only we’d listen, and obey.
These are they who prescribe,
command, compel. The new Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not live on the street.
Thou shall not consume large sugary drinks. Thou shalt wear seat belts, and not
smoke, and a thousand other things.
Because they are educated and enlightened.
Because the are concerned. And because they think themselves our betters.
But they are not.
This country was a grand
experiment, splintered from the regencies and monarchies and religious shackles
of mother Europe. It was founded on the principle 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."
Sound familiar?
So let us consider one early
example of the power of individual freedom. It resonates yet today, though
greatly muted.
In November of 1620, a group of
Separatists left England on the Mayflower seeking religious freedom and
economic opportunity. The first several years were extremely difficult, near
famine, with poor crop yields and perilous scarcity. Nathaniel Philbrick, author of “Mayflower,”
takes up the tale:
“The fall of 1623 marked the end
of Plymouth’s debilitating food shortages. For the last two planting seasons,
the Pilgrims had grown crops communally – the approach first used at Jamestown
and other English settlements. But as the disastrous harvest of the previous
fall had shown, something drastic needed to be done.”
“In April, [William] Bradford had
decided that each household should be assigned its own plot to cultivate, with
the understanding that each family kept whatever it grew. The change in
attitude was stunning. Families were now willing to work much harder than they
had ever worked before. In previous years, the men had tended the fields while
the women tended the children at home. ‘The women now went willingly into the
field,’ Bradford wrote, ‘and took their little ones with them to set the corn.’
The Pilgrims had stumbled on the power of capitalism. Although the fortunes of
the colony still teetered precariously in the years ahead, the inhabitants
never again starved.”
A mystery. Or perhaps not –
simply human nature. When treated as free persons, owners of their own labor
and the fruits thereof, the Pilgrims prospered. And as they prospered individually,
so did the colony.
A small, hoary example, perhaps,
but timeless.
The lesson is simple. Our
"betters" are so only in their imaginations and inflated egos. Let
each choose their own path. Offer your advice if you must, but restrain the
impulse to impose. As an equal, you do not have that right.
