There is an interesting article that I found in Compact Magazine. I took some time yesterday to read and jot down my own comments on paper in hopes of writing a post on it later today. Written by Michael Lind, the article “Forget the Founding Fathers” raises the question of why America, a nation considered part of the English-speaking world, has maintained a strong veneration of the Founders. The rest of the English-speaking world by contrast do not exhibit such tendencies, not even in Great Britain, where the British Crown continues to exist as a ceremonial figure. Lind attempted to ascertain why that trend exists only in America not in the rest of the English-speaking world.
There are a number of points that I agree with Lind on. Not everything from the past is worth revisiting or repeating, let alone emulating for future posterity. Sometimes, it is necessary to borrow certain ideas from the past and to merge them with more contemporary ones in order to lay the foundations of another future. But then there are other moments where it is far more prudent to abandon what is no longer capable of adapting to change. The real challenge lies in making those distinctions and conveying whatever conclusions had been drawn to others, specifically those who have yet to realize them.
However, as Lind noted in his article, this was not the lesson that was made apparent in American politics, especially after 1945 and more so during the Cold War. Lind questioned the extent to which contemporary American politics is influenced by the Founding Fathers and to what extent was it influenced by foreign Ideologies or Personal Cults to specific Founding Fathers.
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