Happy Interdependence Day

I would imagine that if you ask people to summarize what Jefferson was saying in that stirring second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, most would focus on the words “all [people] are created equal” or “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  The focus, for them, is on equality or freedom, both manifestations of individual rights.

But, really, the Declaration is more about the collective right of self-governance.  The important language comes after the bit about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”:  “[T]o secure these rights, governments are instituted among [people], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”  That is, the Declaration is really about democracy and, in turn, law.  Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the ends, but democratically enacted laws are the means by which to secure those ends.  Liberty and happiness are abstract notions; reasonable people can disagree over what they mean in real life and how they can best be achieved.  The Declaration is more about the process by which people get together and decide these things rather than about the substance of liberty and happiness themselves.

How do we know this?  Read the Declaration.  The whole thing, not just those first two stirring paragraphs.  Most of the document is a list of grievances against the King, and the first eight of these grievances have to do with either the King’s failure to make laws or his creating obstacles to local lawmaking in the colonies.  Indeed, the very first complaint is this:  “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”  So, when we celebrate the Fourth, we are not primarily celebrating individual rights.  We are primarily celebrating local democracy and the resulting laws that in many ways constrain individual freedom.  We celebrate independence from one legal regime but we also celebrate interdependence: free citizens relying upon one another to make mutually beneficial laws that constrict some individual freedom in exchange for what they collectively determine to be optimal “liberty” and “happiness.”

In other words, Happy Fourth everyone!  Now let’s go blow stuff up!