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Letter to My Gen-Z Daughters
I have three daughters aged 19 to 26. Despite my best efforts, they succumbed to the temptations of wokery. Part of that wokeness manifests itself in an ambivalence about patriotism, which I address in this letter. I plan to touch on other topics in future letters.
I wrote the letter over the Fourth of July weekend. It is full of concepts that Ricochetti already know, but maybe you can show it to some Gen-Zers you know. Can’t hurt.
Here’s the letter:
<BEGIN LETTER>
We live in the greatest, fairest, and most benevolent country that has ever existed. Unfortunately, Generation Z doesn’t know that.
It isn’t Generation Z’s fault. They are victims of a bad education system and various media populated with morally obtuse “deep thinkers” who are incapable of making comparisons.
I can’t do anything about Generation Z, but I can talk to my highly intelligent daughters.
It is a wild stroke of luck that we were born in this place and in this time. The freedoms we have are historical anomalies that we should feel duty-bound to preserve. Freedom hasn’t always existed, and we could lose it if we take it for granted, or hold its related values in contempt.
So, what makes this country great? Is it because it is the most powerful? The richest? Is it because we are the envy of the world? That other countries want to be us? That our military kicks ass? Is it because we invented the Weber grill?
All of those things are the result of this country’s greatness, not the cause. The greatness is the result of the concepts delineated in the Declaration of Independence and our imperfect efforts to live up to them. We are right to see this country as exceptional.
On July 4th, 1926 President Calvin Coolidge said the following:
About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.
There is a lot of meaning packed into that paragraph.
What did President Coolidge mean? He meant that the principles put on paper as long ago as 1776 can’t be improved. That any movement away from those principles would be a movement backward – not forward.
But, what about slavery? The words of the Declaration are incompatible with slavery and probably contributed to its abolition. The slave owning Thomas Jefferson put language in the Declaration abolishing slavery but had to take it out. But even without the abolition language, slavery is incompatible with the Declaration. The Constitution, written 11 years after the Declaration, was an imperfect implementation of the concepts in the Declaration of Independence, but it included a mechanism for self-improvement – the amendment process. Improvements came over the next 237 years. The Constitution, as it is today, is closer to the concepts of the Declaration than it was in 1789.
Think about it. All the great improvements in human rights that occurred in the United States were the result of movement toward the founding principles. Not away.
The greatest example is the abolition of slavery. You can add the subsequent improvements in the rights of people of color, and other minorities. And there is woman’s suffrage, brought about in 1920.
When Coolidge gave his speech in 1926, the progressive movement was in one of its heydays. A recent President from that era, Woodrow Wilson, had openly held the Declaration and the Constitution in contempt, and many agreed with him. The general feeling among many politicians was that those antiquated documents held them back, and that respect for the founding documents was the result of primitive thinking.
President Wilson referred to supporters of the founding concepts as being possessed by “Fourth of July sentiments.” Many elected politicians, since that time, have had the same contempt for the founding principles as Wilson, but weren’t as open about it.
President Coolidge effectively disputed all that. Coolidge was attempting to provide an antidote to the fashionable thinking of his time. Unfortunately, the stench of that fashionable thinking is still with us.
Let’s focus on the words in the Declaration that illustrate what Coolidge meant.
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 clause means we are born with our rights. They were granted to us by our creator, not the government. The creator could be God, Allah or Bill Maher’s “Man in the Sky.” The concept is also known as “Natural Rights.” If you hear someone denouncing the concept of natural rights, understand what they are denouncing.
Did you notice that natural rights and slavery are incompatible?
The above clause is followed by:
That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed
In a just society, the government is created by the people and exists to prevent their natural rights from being taken away, whether by other people or an invading enemy. The government does so by enforcing laws derived by a consensus of the people, and only those laws. That is, laws enacted by legislatures elected by the people. That is what is meant by the phrase “Consent of the Governed.”
We are talking about a consensus of the governed. If you are pulled over by a cop, can you say “I do not consent to be governed by you?” Nope. The cop is merely enforcing a law that was derived by the consent of your fellow citizens – the governed. But he can’t do anything that isn’t in conformance with those laws.
The above concepts make the United States the greatest country in the world – and unique. Coolidge was pushing back against the “deep thinkers” of his time, who were similar to the “deep thinkers” of today. Here’s the big secret: those “deep thinkers” are not geniuses.
The Fourth of July has already passed this year. I hope you’ll take the time to think about what it means and how lucky we are.
P.S. I have maintained that the government should be considered below the people; not above them. I will expand upon that in another long-winded essay.
P.P.S. I hope your reaction to this essay isn’t, “I always thought Dad was stupid. Now I’m certain!” or simply “Meh!” Please engage this article. Give me feedback. I want to hear from all three of you.
<END LETTER>
I preach at my kids a lot, much to their annoyance. I hope someday it will resonate.
Published in Family
Excellent.
If not now, one day, they will realize what a great great father they have! I have no children, but if I did, I could only hope and pray that I could be the father that you are to your children. That is a wonderful letter to your children. I am looking forward to the next one. I can only hope that your children are looking forward to it as well.
Well done.
Those are very kind words. Thank you.
I want to hear their responses.
I could not possibly express my feelings about this letter any more eloquently than @cdor so I won’t even try, except to say two things. First, thank you for this lovely expression of your obvious love for your daughters (of course!) and your obvious love of your country, so welcome in this time when so many are busy tearing it, and all of its symbols and historical monuments, down. Second, as a measure of how very moving I found it, I have paid it, and you, the highest compliment I know of, I have sent it to my (adopted) grandaughters as it contains timeless lessons I really want them to learn.
Thank you!
You had me worried when you started that you had nothing to say. I thought, uh oh, is Jim not feeling well? Thank goodness, you recovered! Great idea! I could make copies for some great nephews and nieces. I think the good Doc better copywrite his letter.
Good one! I tell friends and colleagues that long-windedness is an occupational hazard as a result of being a trial lawyer for more decades than I care to count! Glad you like my idea- I really hope it catches on and that it benefits many families!
I am honored to be mistaken for @DrBastiat. His posts are brilliant.
I’m BastiatJunior. We both created our screen names without knowing about the other.
Distant cousins.
Great letter, by the way.
Thank you.
You are so correct I am so sorry. I noticed that about halfway through the post and I thought wait a minute. But that’s as far as I got. Anyway, you are a wonderful father, and that was a wonderful letter.
I like the letter; I’m going to go on a purposely radical track that I mostly believe, but possibly somewhat like Trump, I don’t want all discussion to be “comfortable”. In fact, our modern pursuit of comfort is close to the root of much of our peril.
Take away a belief in God, Natural Rights, or some transcendent order, and the only “law” is power. Even atheist materialists have faith that we live in an ordered universe with physical laws that humans can comprehend but can’t explain “why” other than randomness somehow begetting order.
Jordan Peterson has trouble believing in God (though he seems headed that way), but he believes that to have a meaningful life you need to live “as if” there is a God, eternity and judgement. Many thinkers of history are in essentially the same camp, most famously Jefferson. Many were Deists.
Why a Republic?
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” (Madison)
Thus, three branches, separate but equal, providing “checks and balances”. I maintain that a minimum requirement to vote should be the ability to pass a fairly rigorous test on the Federalist Papers. The Constitution contains no explicit right to vote. The SCOTUS decided it was implicit in the 14th Amendment. Any sort of “competence test” is immediately branded as “racist”, however there IS a test to become a naturalized citizen, which includes a requirement to be able to speak basic English. Along with universal voter ID, printing ballots only in English would go a long way to prevent voter fraud.
Some effort needs to be required to become a citizen! Passing the US Citizenship Test seems minimal, even if my Federalist idea is too “out there”. Most of the population of the US are just consumers today rather than citizens. We lack a population of citizens with enough knowledge to return to being a Republic.
Ther quest for total power is why Democrats are very close to the complete destruction of our Republic, replaced by their “democracy”, which is really an Oligarchy. Thus lawfare, attacks on the SCOTUS, attacks on freedom of speech, etc.
The pursuit of “happiness” is a fool’s errand. Trying to be happy is like trying to fall in love. Happiness, like love, is a side effect of a myriad of elements mostly beyond our control and understanding. Yes, intact families, religious observance, skills, etc. improve the odds of experiencing happiness, but if it was guaranteed, it wouldn’t be happiness.
Slavery was and is a grave evil. There are at least 50 million slaves in the world today. At its peak, there were 4 million slaves in the US.
Indentured servitude may well be improvement on the common “deaths of despair” that millions face today. We are all slaves anyway, either to Christ, Allah, some passion, some addiction, some goal like wealth, fame, power, etc. Embrace our slavery and seek a master whose burden is light.
“All men are created equal” means “under the law”, obviously not “equal” as regards ability, temperament, character, and far too many elements to be considered. The pursuit of “equity” is an insanity that would be recognized by the vast majority if we were not so deep into Mass Formation.
Without God and life after death, “Life is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
Or as Soloman says “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
Our nation is now so poorly educated that most are incapable of grasping most of @BastiatJuniors excellent note, or my ravings. A significant reason for this is because fewer and fewer in our nation have a foundation. Our divided house without a foundation is falling down.
So much, if not all, of what you said is true. What a shame! My only blood nephew is highly educated. His early Education was completed at a highly regarded private school in West LA called Harvard Westlake. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with honors. He received his law degree from NYU. He is a highly regarded tax attorney for the huge firm Ernst and Young. Some years back I had a discussion with him concerning the authority of the Supreme Court. I brought up Madison v Marbury. He chuckled and said he didn’t study constitutional law. Later We were discussing gun rights. He didn’t understand why it was a problem for everyone to have their guns registered with the federal government. I said Nephew the second amendment is not in place so that citizens may own guns to shoot deer. It’s there so that citizens can protect themselves from the government. How can they do that if the government knows where every gun is? I too have advanced education. Mine is in fine arts. I ran and later owned my family’s plumbing supply business. Yet, I knew more about the Constitution than did he. This is our population. And this is why we have the country that we have today. Houston, we have a much bigger problem than landing on the moon.
Even if he had been taught about the Constitution, he probably would have been taught that the 2nd Amendment – and maybe all the rest of it too – was really just about empowering White Supremacy. To some degree, being a “blank slate” might be preferable.
Well, c’,mon, “Tax Attorney”. That is to being a “lawyer” what being a place kicker is to being a football player.
Two of my daughters have responded. My middle daughter has a schedule that makes her hard to catch. The two that I heard from liked it generally, and didn’t find it to be controversial. That surprised me considering some of the things I have heard them say.
It’s true that I steered clear of current issues in this letter. I didn’t even mention the 1619 project.
My own self-serving view of it is that it changed their minds a bit without their realizing it. They might be less inclined to dismiss all US History as racism and slavery.
I am glad to hear of the positive result that your two daughters who got back to you have offered up.
I enjoyed and I agree with everything you have written except: I do not see you as self serving.
Self serving attitudes usually employ emotionally reactive communications that come from a place of frustration, irritation, annoyance, lack of patience etc. with those very individuals whom we are seeking to inform.
You avoided that method of interaction and instead gave details of what our nation is about when we view it at its best or at its striving to be best. That should not mean we deny our nation’s past and current darker aspects. But neither should we blot out all of the many facets of the USA that are miraculously wonderful.
Maybe “self-serving” wasn’t the right phrase. I meant to apply it to my interpretation of my daughters’ reaction to the letter.
That is, I think I changed their minds. And that is my self-serving reaction to their comments. :-)
I have 3 millenial kids and a one year old granddaughter. I’ll play devil’s advocate and write a response to your letter:
Dad, those are very noble sentiments you expressed in your letter. I notice that you stressed the consent of the governed. Did you know that every child born today in the U.S. will be born effectively more than $100,000 in debt? Is this the “wild stroke of luck” of which you speak? Who consented to that? Certainly not we millenials, gen-Zer’s and beyond who are handed the bill for the comfortable retirements our parents and grandparents are enjoying as they lecture us about the greatness of America. Great for you certainly. Not so much for us.
I remember in history class reading about indentured servants who would go into debt to travel to America, then work off that debt and eventually become free men. Our entire generation is a generation of debt slaves, but we aren’t paying off our own debts. We are paying off the debts our parents and grandparents handed to us rather than paying it off themselves. Actually we aren’t even paying them off, just paying increasing interest on the debt as it increases into the eventual systemic collapse.
“In a just society, the government is created by the people and exists to prevent their natural rights from being taken away, whether by other people or an invading enemy.”
The flaw here is that it is easy to take away the rights of succeeding generations by squandering the nation’s capital on present generations and leaving future generations destitute. It’s not a new story, it’s as old as civilization itself. And the noble principles of the Declaration of Independence haven’t prevented it.
Boomers and Gen-Xers want us to embrace natural rights? Show us you mean it by respecting our natural right not to be born debt slaves. Forswear your Social Security and Medicare entitlements.
That might be a big ask, since they were paying into it for years/decades, although not to support THEIR OWN benefits.
That’s true. It was a Ponzi scheme from the beginning. The question is who is going to be left holding the bag.
It’s a tough sell, however, to preach to someone about natural rights while handing them a $100,000 bill they didn’t agree to.
Meanwhile, though, they’re also essentially being handed a “bill” that they may be required to join the military for something they didn’t personally agree to either. It’s also part of being born into any given country.
Good devil’s advocacy.
The huge, accumulated debt we are passing on certainly violates the spirit of our founding documents, if not the letter. Social Security and Medicare are abominations and are not the only ones.
The only thing I would say to the devil, if he were participating in the conversation, is that it is necessary to make comparisons. I would rather be born here – with that massive debt – then even Canada and the UK, where you have even less freedom.
True. Natural rights don’t preclude some necessary obligations on the part of the citizen. Defending the country would I think count as high on the list of those necessary obligations. I think it much harder to make a natural rights case that one generation can by right force succeeding generations to subsidize their lifestyle.
I find your devil’s advocacy to be a very reasonable position. If I had a child who responded to me in that fashion, I could only tell them I am very sorry. It was not my wish for this to happen. And then, if I’m lucky enough, I could tell them not to worry because when I’m gone I will leave them enough to cover their share of that debt, plus some.
But what’s the argument that it must needs stop NOW, after THIS generation has ALREADY paid/been paying for the previous generations’ benefit? The only generation that only benefited without really paying much, was the very first.
Because our parents screwed us, that justifies us screwing our kids? Remember, this is in the context of making an argument to the younger generation concerning natural rights and the consent of the governed. We are going to hand the bill to the younger generations, that’s a foregone conclusion. Perhaps we shouldn’t add insult to injury by lecturing to them about natural rights when we do it. At least, that is how I would respond if I were a member of the younger generations.
How much longer can the debt spiral continue? We are in the exponential phase of debt growth, adding a trillion dollars every hundred days now, and the rate continues to increase. I’m pretty sure the debt will implode before the younger generations can retire in 30 or 40 years. So they will be left holding the bag. Sucks to be them I guess.
On the other hand, “shutting off the spigot” NOW would only accelerate the crash.
“Don’t forget the trillions and trillions of dollars of infrastructure you were born into and didn’t have to pay for yourself. Roads, cities, sewers, power, trade systems, etc, etc, etc. You can’t just look at the Liability side of the balance sheet and ignore the Asset side.”