Jean-Jacques Rousseau and American Amnesia (?)
Thursday, 20. July 2006, 13:34:08
"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." - Rousseau, The Social Contract.
How is that American framers of "democracy" read, recited, reiterated, recontextualized and reified this quote without applying it to their own context? How is it that Americans crafted the Three-Fifths Compromise amid Rousseau's truism? Hos is that those truths held to be self-evident were nowhere in evidence with respect to Africans?
Perhaps we should simply blame the lawyers.
These are important questions and should not be reduced to the notion that America's founding fathers denied the humanity of Africans. If that is actually the case, then a good number of them might be understood to have engaged in bestiality of a most vile nature. In any case, these men do not emerge as moral or rational. The contradictions are too great - and they are fundamental to the unresolved issues facing this nation.
How is that American framers of "democracy" read, recited, reiterated, recontextualized and reified this quote without applying it to their own context? How is it that Americans crafted the Three-Fifths Compromise amid Rousseau's truism? Hos is that those truths held to be self-evident were nowhere in evidence with respect to Africans?
Perhaps we should simply blame the lawyers.
These are important questions and should not be reduced to the notion that America's founding fathers denied the humanity of Africans. If that is actually the case, then a good number of them might be understood to have engaged in bestiality of a most vile nature. In any case, these men do not emerge as moral or rational. The contradictions are too great - and they are fundamental to the unresolved issues facing this nation.
WIDGETIZE
How to use Quote function: