Chronological Snobs and the Founding Fathers
C.S. Lewis coined the term “Chronological Snobbery” to describe the condition of “uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate common to our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that account discredited. The chronological snob forgets that he too lives in a finite time period that will pass away with its assumptions and illusions. The attitude breeds blindness to one’s own flaws and an overly critical approach towards those of other time periods.
Turned to history, the snob sits astride his high horse passing judgment on the past with a self-congratulatory note. As time has moved on from bygone eras, the people and ideas of those eras become inherently inferior to those of the present age. The Chronological Snob draws satisfaction in looking down on his predecessors, and the American Snob of the 21st century especially delights in highlighting the failures of the American Founders.
The goal of studying the American Founding by college professors and students oftentimes carries the stated purpose of showing them to be mere humans like all the rest of us. Fair enough. They were men with clay feet. It is worthwhile to remember that heroes of the past were not perfect and should not be objects of worship.
The assumed corollary in a college classroom though is that not only are the heroes of the past merely humans, but that with centuries of progress, we are actually better than them. When encountering the great generations of the American past, however, particularly the Founding Fathers, the appropriate response is humility, not self-adulation. This humility should derive from a consideration of what those men achieved despite being no less flawed than any other human on the planet.
The lesson is that in spite of their frail humanity, they reached heights unparalleled in the course of human events.
The British Empire of the 18th century was the foremost superpower of its day. Its American colonies were an insignificant cluster of thirteen communities clinging to the edge of the North American continent. They were neither England’s wealthiest, nor most populous, nor most powerful colonies. The colonists had the geographical advantage of separation from the mother country by a vast ocean. Besides that, the colonists had no other advantage against the might of the British Empire.
Add to all this what your friendly neighborhood faculty member will be all too glad to remind you: the leaders of the colonial cause were deeply flawed human beings. This fact should add to the wonder of the Revolution, though, not detract. In spite of their flawed humanity, the Founders achieved something marvelous. By overthrowing their imperial overlords the men who were just like everyone else accomplished what no one else could. This ought to evoke a deeper spirit of admiration, not condescension.
Revolutions in history have a dubious past, at best. The Ancient Greek Historian Thucydides, describing a savage revolution in the city-state of Corcyra, wrote that such barbarism will always be the pattern of revolution so long as human nature remains the same. Edmund Burke called the French Revolution the consequence of “losing, in the splendor of these triumphs of the rights of men, all natural sense of right and wrong.”
The American Revolutionaries, however, as Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, were driven by the “love of order” and a “thoughtful taste for freedom.” Their revolution ended not in the savagery of the movements, but in the world’s most stable democratic republic and the oldest active written constitution. The Founding Fathers were sinful humans just like the Greeks and the French. The fact that they succeeded where others failed despite all the same common human limitations makes them even more remarkable.
The 250th anniversary affords more opportunity than typical to revisit the Founding. It is, therefore, more important than ever that Americans approach the date with the proper frame of mind. This approach should start with humility, not condescension. Acting in this light should deepen appreciation for the Fathers of the country.
No, the Founders were not “demigods,” as Thomas Jefferson once labeled the members of the Constitutional Convention. They were flawed men like everyone else. They had their vices, bigotries, and indiscretions too. The significant lesson on the Founding Fathers should not be that they were flawed. That much is obvious. The lesson is that in spite of their frail humanity, they reached heights unparalleled in the course of human events. The question should not be “were the Founders as flawed as we are?” Rather, the question ought to be, “since they were just as flawed as we are and still achieved so much more than we have, what’s our excuse?”
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Nate Weiland teaches Humanities in the Upper School at Heritage Classical Academy near Cleveland, Ohio. He is a graduate of Grove City College and the University of Pittsburgh.