The history of Man

I'm reading a thoughtful book by the wonderful American historian Heather Cox Richardson titled How the South Won the Civil War.  This book takes a look at the history of this country starting with its founding.  I'm finding it a challenging read, not because it isn't clearly written, but because back in those days, it was the Republicans who were against slavery (they were the good guys) and Democrats who wanted to perpetuate that institution (the bad guys).  I have to keep transposing in my mind who the parties were then with who (whom?) they have become today, when it is Democrats who want to create, for example, affordable health care for all (the good guys) and  Republicans who made almost 70 attempts to curb, repeal, and/or modify that plan without offering a better one of their own (the bad guys).  It is Democrats who elected the first Black President (the good guys) and Republicans who elected Trump (the bad guys). 

It is also a challenging book because of how clearly, how glaringly it brings into focus that this country was founded on a broken promise.  The Declaration of Independence states "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..."  What isn't stated but is a true founding principle of the United States is "And we do mean men.  And by that we mean white men.  Specifically white men with property.  Basically men like us.  And no women.  Definitely no women."

I understand that a lot of countries have been founded on less than ethical terms, through violence or confiscation or the notion of the Divine Right of the few, etc.  But in this country, we have this document shouting out our moral superiority and our commitment to equality.  And, sadly, the promise of that document wasn't even being kept by those who wrote it, who saw Negroes as only partially men, Native Americans as dispensable savages, and women as baby makers who help men in their pursuit of happiness.

We are paying now for the rot at the core of our national birth.  We have always been paying for it.  Some, of course, pay a higher price than others, but all of us pay as our hypocrisies and cruelties continue to catch up with us.  I can't speak to earlier ages except from what I learn from books, but I know about this present time that violence has been encouraged from the highest levels of government and so is blossoming.  Too few people have too much, and too many have too little.  And those who have will do what they can to keep and increase what they have.  For some, no amount of wealth is enough, and damn those who have nothing.

Another part of why this is such a sad truth is that it has always been so, from the beginning of time.  Those who have power and stuff do what they can, what they must, to hold onto what they have, using violence, twisting laws, breaking promises, organizing armies.  It seems to be in the very nature of humankind.  Or is it just the nature of mankind?  What kind of world might this be if women had had, or been given, equal power, equal say all along?  Ah, but if women had power given to them, that power could also be taken away, and to take it for ourselves would probably mean becoming more like the men who take and take and take in any way they feel they need to.  I don't know. 

I guess the only resting place, for me at least, is to acknowledge that the world is as it is, people are as they are, and my job is to do whatever good I can, to be kind, be honest, be aware of others.  I suppose that's the only way there can be any sort of balance among people and peoples.  Good people must be good, even if we will never be powerful.  I don't hold out much hope that my attempts at goodness will solve a single one of the world's problems, nor even my neighborhood's problems, but still, it's what I can do, it's what I have to offer,  it's the only way I will be able to live peaceably with myself.

Still, can we all just get along?