Any account of the history of struggle for freedom and democracy can not be complete without the mention of the relatively recent and apparently successful movement that took place in the North American continent. However, in order to understand the democratic fundamentalism and fascination for weapons so deeply entrenched in the people of that part of the world, especially the USAians, one must go back to the origins of civilization itself. Anthropologists tell us that initially the human race consisted of hunters who had to compete with animals for survival. Gradually, humans learned and developed home-building and cultivation which enabled them to establish agricultural settlements. However, although farming fulfilled the needs for grains and vegetables, a section of the male population still had to go out hunting to provide meat. Thus the communities divided into two distinct categories, namely farmers and hunters. The farmers concentrated on growing crops, developing new techniques of agriculture and experimenting with new crops to increase their output to feed the growing population. The hunters, apart from killing animals in the jungle and bringing their carcasses home, tried to develop new tools, weapons and methods of hunting. Soon it was found that it was more convenient to catch or herd the cattle to their villages, pen them and kill them when needed – and get milk as a bonus.
Later when the art of animal husbandry was developed, the hunters found a new vocation in protecting the villages from wild animals and attacks from the hunters of other villages, resulting in the evolution of civil and martial factions within the villages. As time passed, new professions developed and artisans and traders also became part of the civilian community while the martial community organized itself into an army of sorts. It was also discovered that locating the animal pens in the centre of the villages reduced the chances of their loss to both human and animal predators.
Eventually, fortifications were built in the middle of the villages for safe-keeping of some of the crops and cattle, and most of the valuables of the villagers. Each fortification was, probably, manned by a respectable administrator, a team of record-keepers, and a group of armed hunters or soldiers led by the bravest individual in the village. As the population and prosperity grew, fortifications were built around the entire city and the central depositories were converted into royal palaces, thus creating city-states or capitals of kingdoms. At some stage in the ensuing history, greed and opportunism overcame the guardians of public assets. The custodians and the soldiers conspired and the custodians took control of all the wealth of the people, appointed a king from among themselves and began to rule with the help of the soldiers. The farmers and artisans were forced to pay a portion of their produce as taxes in return for protection from both internal and external predators. Frequent skirmishes were fought with neighboring villages to keep people in a state of insecurity. Naturally, the king and the soldiers were very unpopular among the people and ways had to be found to remove this feeling. The king sent his soldiers to plunder the nearby weaker villages and celebrated the victories with the civilians. After a few generations the original usurpation was forgotten and the king became the divine ruler and source of inspiration. The king's word became the law. It is interesting that even in those days the rulers had discovered the psychological principle that given a high enough state of stress caused by threat and insecurity the people would fantasize and persuade themselves to admire the person or group capable of protecting them, no matter how evil he might be or how much he debased them.
As time progressed, reformers in various parts of the world tried to undo the tyrannical dichotomy and create homogeneous societies, without much success. By the end of the fifteenth century, there were large numbers of people in Europe who were looking for a way out of the system. The accidental discovery of the American continent in 1492 by Christopher Columbus, who had actually set out to find India, was the answer to their prayers. They braved the mighty ocean in large numbers and landed in the areas of the 'new world' now called USA, and founded a more or less uniform community of farmer-cum-hunters who set enviable examples of courage and patience in their dual roles. The cowboy was the manifestation of the ideal of farmer-cum-hunter.
However, the American continents were not uninhabited when the Europeans arrived. There were well civilized and organized, though illiterate and sparsely distributed, tribes of copper colored people whom the Europeans mistook as Indians or called them Indians because they were nearly black to differentiate them from the African black people who were already dubbed Negros. The Native Americans quite rightly opposed the influx or illegal immigrants into their lands and took measures to stop them. But the European immigrants were already at the point of no return and with the help of their superior weaponry, massacred nearly the entire population of the continent. Whether the Native Americans were too proud and freedom loving to accept alien domination or the European intruders were plain sadistic psychopaths is difficult to ascertain. Some historians suggest that 90% of the natives died of diseases and epidemics brought by the European invaders who themselves had immunity to those diseases, which also explains why the natives considered them abominable and dangerous.
Dutch, English, French, Spanish and Swedish colonies were established on the eastern coast of North America beginning 1519, mainly for trading and contacts were established with the local population for the exchange of goods. Only the English established colonies of agricultural settlers, about 400,000 coming in the 17th century mainly due to religious persecution at home. In 1624 King James I of England made Virginia the first royal colony. White servants worked the farms until the late 17th century. But earlier in the century, English tobacco and sugar planters in the Caribbean had adopted African slavery, long the chief labor system in Portuguese and Spanish sugar colonies in those islands. By 1700 the English colonized islands were characterized by large plantations and by populations that were overwhelmingly African. These African slaves were victims of a particularly brutal and unhealthy plantation system that killed most of them. It was not a coincidence that these islands produced more wealth for England than its other colonies. By 1720, most of what is now the USA was part of the British Empire. The American war of independence started in 1775, independence was declared in 1776, the war ended in 1783 and the constitutional US government was established in 1787. The American Revolution, as some historians call it after the French Revolution, accomplished two noble objectives. First, the war achieved independence from Great Britain. Second, the newly created United States of America established a republican form of government, in which power resided with the people.
Meanwhile, democratic movements had started in Europe and elsewhere in the world and kings were forced to separate their administration and tax collection from the military. In some places, the kings had to delegate much of their powers to civilian leaders such as significant property owners and bankers. The French revolution established a civilian as a president and a body of law makers to formulate legislation, state policies and budgets. The military was restricted to its barracks. The uniqueness of the US constitution was that it was the first political instrument that defined the basic rights of its citizens and limitations of the government in clear terms.
The people of the USA succeeded in forming a relatively conscientious society based on justice for and social equality of white men which transcended European national and religious prejudices and received due recognition from intellectuals all over the world. They were also able to evolve a unique ethos of fidelity based on shared interests -- institutional or economic, rather than ethnic bond or theological obligation. The poetry of Mr. Wiggleworth which combined the Islamic concept of resurrection and Judgment day with Christian and Jewish religious beliefs may have played a significant part in the evolution of the conscientiousness. This secularly righteous attitude combined with the benefits of free slave labor abducted from Africa, Ferguson’s agricultural machinery and Eli Whitney's invention of mass-production, resulted in unprecedented progress and prosperity in a relatively short period of time. Some historians suggest that the African slaves were actually bought by the white Americans from black Africans, but one can still find people of real Indian origin in the Caribbean islands who remember how they were abducted by the British from the streets of Calcutta and Madras in the early 20th century.
The new American philosophy of life also developed aberrations in due course. By the early 20th century the American dream had turned into a nightmare with distinct social divisions, growing militarism and corruption far in excess of that in Europe. However, there were good leaders trying their best to reform the society. At one time even an attempt was made to prohibit the use of liquor which had to be given up after about fifteen years. However, the abundance of opportunities had attracted people of other inclinations as well and, before long, the American society was also split into two functional groups -- the farmer-cum-hunters and the fortune hunters -- resulting in what is called the Capitalist system. The two shades of gray are quite discernible today and Veblen's leisure class really seems to exist. The basic weakness of the Capitalist system is that the vast majority of the population is so comprehensively bound in mortgages and loans that most people actually own nothing and are economically insecure. Any increase in stress level due to increase in the feeling of insecurity makes them cross the rationality threshold and allows a crook to become a temporary hero. Yet, one can not deny the great scientific and technological accomplishments of the people of USA resulting in such wondrous achievements as the moon landing and internet.
The two World Wars played a significant role in the shaping of US politics and economy. Encarta has this to say about World War I:
"Since the outbreak of war in Europe, pacifists and reformers had deplored the drift toward conflict; financiers and industrialists, however, promoted patriotism, “preparedness,” and arms buildup." About World War II, it says:
"Most Americans of the 1930s recoiled from involvement in the European conflict; they favored U.S. isolationism, and many supported pacifism. Some believed that “merchants of death” (bankers and arms dealers) had lured the United States into World War I…….
In 1935 and 1936, Congress passed a group of neutrality acts to keep the United States out of Europe’s troubles. The first two acts banned arms sales or loans to nations at war. The third act, a response to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), extended the ban to nations split by civil war……..
In September 1939 Roosevelt called Congress into special session to revise the neutrality acts. The president offered a plan known as cash-and-carry, which permitted Americans to sell munitions to nations able to pay for them in cash and able to carry them away in their own ships."
The American participation in the first and second World Wars resulted in the formulation of American national defense policy of maintaining a weapons and ammunition production capacity that would allow it to jump into a new World War at short notice. In order to keep the unnecessarily huge military hardware industry in working order, it must keep producing something all the time. But since there is a limit to the quantity and time period for which equipment and ammunition can be stored unused, they must find or contrive wars and keep selling or consuming the weapons and ammunition all the time. In the process, they also keep getting a lot of their own soldiers and citizens of other nations killed.
It is interesting to note that the Chinese, who feel militarily threatened by the USA, spend an amount nearly one fifth of the US military budget to maintain a defensive capability. The Indians, who feel threatened by the Chinese, spend an amount nearly a quarter of the Chinese military budget to maintain a viable defensive power. The Pakistanis, who have reasons to feel threatened by the Indian military might, spend an amount nearly a quarter of the Indian military budget to maintain a credible defensive posture.
The World would be a far better place to live in if the leaders of USA could be convinced that they can safely cut down on the defense production capability, arsenals and munitions stockpiles, and limit military production to only the quantities needed for training and exercises. The re-engineering of the US economy to make it a peace-time economy would bring unprecedented peace, security and prosperity to the American people and also the rest of the world. The problem is, ‘how to make it happen?’
