250 USA, From The Dawn of US to The Morning in 'Murica

​The Dawn of The United States, The Morning of ‘Murica. When Was America Great?

The United States of America is a government institution and is now 250 years old. In the following summary of the history which led us to the state of society today I will prove when The USA was great, why it is a former superpower of former greatness, and how to make America great again, actually, not like the hyperbolic manure in the popularized slogan.

    What a young nation The USA is. The USA is a beautiful nation of amalgamation. It is a flawed nation, perhaps formerly the best nation, it is one of the most influential nations, and certainly the only superpower to ever exist and the only superpower to have degraded into just another national power. The USA is only former superpower on Earth.
   
    The USA was a superpower. It may be arguable when and if The United States of America was great, but there is no doubt in my mind that The USA was a superpower in the 1980s and early 1990s. During this time period The USA could conduct action without war and could inspire problem solving without transactional political schemes. During this time period The USSR, the opponent in The Cold War, fell simply by way of attempted competition with a superpower. No war was required it simply fell.

    It’s now 250 years since the foundation of The USA, July 4, 1776, but not quite 250 years since the advancement of The Bill of Rights, later ratified on December 15, 1791. We did have much all else of The Constitution and The Declaration of Independence, of course. The Bill of Rights is the institutionalization of individual liberty, or as close as we’ve got thus far, and since then we have fought to keep our liberty with many successes and many failures.

    The Declaration of Independence set the course and character of The USA, but it has no legal influence. It is the first of the documents which comprise The Trinity of Liberty. Perhaps the most important part of The Declaration of Independence is the distinction of individuals and institutions and the then institutionalized king. The Declaration of Independence defines The USA as a culture of individuals rather than institutions.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. ~Declaration of Independence

    We see the import of individuals over institutions here. And it is important to note that in the original draft of The Declaration there was a renunciation of slavery among the many renunciations of the king, but it was removed. Later The USA would fight The Civil War over the hypocritical cruelty of slavery. This battle between those seeking liberty for individuals among institutions and the constrictive arrangements of institutionalized representatives has long characterized The USA as well world history more broadly. History may be understood as the recordkeeping of this interplay between individuals and institutions, between liberty and oligarchy.

“He has waged cruel War against human Nature itself, violating its most sacred Rights of Life and Liberty in the Persons of a distant People who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into Slavery in another Hemisphere, or to incur miserable Death, in their Transportation thither. This piratical Warfare, the opprobrium of infidel Powers, is the Warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain.” ~Thomas Jefferson, Draft of The Declaration of Independence

    On July 4th, 1776, The Declaration of Independence set fourth on the independent individualized character of The USA. The Constitution defined government operations. Perhaps the most character revealing idea within The Constitution aside from the mechanics of government is The Preamble.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. ~USA Constitution

    Then fifteen years later, in 1791, after much tumult between individuals and the institutionalized, that The Bill of Rights was ratified. There are so many important concepts within the documents of The Trinity of Liberty that it has influenced the world, not by way of militarism or transactional exchange, simply by way of its importance and the uplifting impact of its existence. All other institutions across the world since then, all other oligarchical collectivism, had to adjust to its principles.   
   
    Since the foundation of The USA and the establishment of The Bill of Rights the world has seen the shedding of the divine rite of kings, the breaking of colonialization, numerous wars and the mental and physical plagues brought about thereby, including two world wars, several proxy wars, numerous oil wars for resource control. And more recently we have erratic aggression expressed to neighbors, allies and enemy collectivist states alike. And all to the benefit entanglements with other nations it would appear; russia and israel most notably.

    And despite all the specific and differentiated isms involved and the particular institutional posturing in left and right wing format to rationalize mass murder and mass repression these different tunes are all the same dissonant melody. If we take a step back to gain fuller perspective, it is the same old story since the renunciation of slavery was removed from The Declaration of Independence. It is and was institutional repression coordination versus liberty pursuing individuals.

    Today, our education system is torn asunder, burned out and federalized to ordain good workers for collectivism, rather than raise individuated intelligence. Many do not even learn the character of the former superpower anymore, the character that made the only superpower to have been, that is the power and potential of the individuated individual distinct among institutions. Now it would appear that people don’t even know the difference between living and breathing individuals and mechanical and bureaucratical institutions and the institutionalized thereof. 

    The results of our degraded education system have led us to the point where ignorance rules and materialism is glorified, to the declination of unity passed the peak in the line of decline. And it is all based on the ignorance of The USA character, the power and potential of the individuated individual among institutions. It is all based on the decline of literacy and increase of ignorance. For over two hundred years individuals in The USA knew the difference between individuals and institutions and were exemplary thereby.

    The results of being unaware of this goes beyond simple cultural ignorance. The USA offered rights, as written in The Bill of Rights, to mechanical plundering institutions. Institutions should not have the rights of individuals.

    The Citizens United (really Institutions United) Supreme Court decision specifically offered the rights of man to institutions. The Citizens United Supreme Court decision stated that institutions could not be prohibited from political expenditures. In other words, institutions could spend whatever they wanted on whatever institutionalized politicians they like. Since then institutionalized political groups have supported their representatives with unlimited financial assistance. These are not the people’s representatives rather institutionalized representatives. And we have all noticed the increased institutional representation often noted as spineless and uncooperative, but it is the institutions riding their back leading them.

    The 2010 Citizens United decision gave the rights of human beings to mechanical institutions. The Bill of Rights was designed to be applicable to human beings, sovereign and yet united together. And it took less than 250 years to dismantle critical thinking to the point we collectively do not differentiate individuals and institutions nor the individuated and institutionalized. Today political organizations can manifest unlimited funds to support candidates, the philosophical equivalent of giving institutions the rights of individuals. The foundational logic stating that we should find a way to give machines rights of breathing beings is the abhorrent leap that promises more unthinking individuals and more data-oriented institutions. And all of this individual ignorance and institutional vigilance is leading to increased toleration of technocratic oligarchical collectivism.

    There is a legend from Egypt about when language was first brought to life for the pharaoh by the scribe Thoth. One of the lessons from this mythology is a warning that the scribe offered to the pharaoh with the invention of writing: writing is an excellent tool, but it is also a way for the mind to become lazy and in this laziness there is potential to become mentally weak and useless.  

    Now apply that lesson to the innumerable helpful technological tools that indubitably enhance idea and discovery -for some- but also lead to an exponential potential for lazy and useless mentality. Now add AI and multiply more. How else can we measure this – in order to counter it? And how can we prove that The USA is a former superpower and show the way to regain exceptional status? How do we make The USA great again? And when we were great?

    In the Colonial Era many people were restricted from learning how to read, slaves and women most notably. Literacy was still an elite skill even then. Some estimate that as few as 20% of people were literate. The literacy rates in The USA grew steadily for hundreds of years and by the 1930s as little as around 5% were illiterate and by around 1980 the literacy rate in The USA was around 99%. But since then, 0literacy rates, and thus comprehension levels, have steadily declined with remarkable decrease in the last decade or two, since around The Citizen’s United ruling. Some estimate that around 20% of the USA has a comprehension level of a 5th grader today. And knowing this it is no wonder we can’t tell machine from being anymore and will tolerate the idea that they are the same.  

    So, when was The USA Great? When literacy was prevalent and rising and in correspondence when liberty was expanded to more indiscriminately. This Is around the time when The USA won The Cold War, in part by just existing with better opportunity and broader fairness, not by war.  

    When did The USA lose any exemplary status it might have yet still had and became just another oligarchical institution? When Citizens United offered human rights to institutional tools.

    If we do not read much we will comprehend less with greater difficulty and we will be lied to more easily. How do we become great again? Read. Raise your consciousness and read. Read with your kids. Read out loud alone and in front of others. Read to comprehend reality to become more useful to yourself and others. Read to save the world. The library will liberate us or we will be another example of Thoth’s warning.

    So you want to make The USA great again? Then read. Liberation is in liberty and liberty is in the library. Read and repeal Citizen’s United ruling enabling oligarchical collectivism. Read nonfiction and repeal Citizen’s United. Read and Repeal.