The Ties that Bind: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
- Karen Kuykendall
- Jul 3
- 6 min read
There are thousands of posts this week about our country's upcoming 250th birthday. Some of them focus on the actual events of 1776, others point out interesting or little known facts, and still others compare the intent of the Founding Fathers to our present-day reality. For this post, I'll explore what is most important: the truths that bind us together as Americans.
We are truly a grand experiment—a unique chapter in the history of nations. For most of civilization, people have been bound by biological ties. As ancient groups of human beings grew, tribes formed based on shared DNA. Eventually, family groups became villages, then city states, and finally nations. While the group grew in size, its members' outlook often did not expand. Their mindset continued to be tribal, even when their territory spanned hundreds or thousands of miles.
With some exceptions, such as the wider entry into Roman citizenship, most of these societies limited legal protection and privileges to those who were descendants of the original group. In addition, many who qualified on biological grounds were excluded from having rights, based on their financial or social status. If you were born poor and unconnected, chances were that you would stay that way, with no opportunity to better your situation.
History is rife with examples of this reality. Here are a few:
If your tribe or country was conquered and you were taken as a slave, you were reduced to the status of property. Your new master could do with you whatever he or she wanted. Barring escape, you would most likely be in bondage for the rest of your life, with no right to marry, have children, or choose your destiny. Slavery has been so endemic in the human race that it has been much more common for a civilization to have it than to not.
A nation that conquered another nation might not take its people as slaves, but it did take control of resources, enacted its own laws, and subjugated the defeated under its control. The people who were of a different background than the conquerors usually had vastly reduced rights or privileges, if any at all.
Almost all groups or nations have had leadership that exercised authoritarian control over the average person. Kings, queens, lords, chieftains, and even high-ranking clergy unilaterally decided the fate of those below them. The exception might be some protection for persons of high rank or nobility who, because of their family connections, were given more consideration. Again, blood ties made the difference.
Immigration from one place to another has often been either warmly welcomed or fiercely resisted, based on differences between the groups. For the people who were already in place, it was much easier to accept incoming persons who looked, sounded, and had the same beliefs as they did. Fear of the other has caused many of these situations to become violent and even deadly in an effort to control resources, consolidate power, and prevent intermarriage.
Though these types of events have occurred in America, the principles on which the country was founded began an evolution to a better place. The United States has always been in a unique position, both topographically and historically, to counter these natural human tendencies. Our 18th-century founders utilized the lack of authoritarian presence combined with evolving humanistic thought to create an unprecedented theory of government, based on equal rights and opportunity.
Though we still strive, however imperfectly, to fully implement our founders' ideals, the seeds were planted from the beginning. Instead of shared biology, our founders based our nation's ties on shared ideals. This kind of brilliant and counter-intuitive thinking can be seen almost 2,000 years earlier during the formation of Christianity. In the book of Acts, Peter states that "God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right." The Apostle Paul states in Galatians that "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
Living in a modern democracy, it may be hard for us to image the mind-blowing shift of these statements, so opposite were they to natural and entrenched human inclinations at the time. In forming this nation's government on egalitarian principles, I cannot help but believe that some of the biblically literate men in the Continental Congress were reminded of and inspired by these passages.
Fast forward to today. Our momentous national birthday takes place tomorrow, and the celebration will be tremendous. In the midst of the occasion, however, many of us will be focused on and stressed about our current state of national disharmony. Poll after poll shows Americans believe we are much more divided as a country now than we have been in the past, and it is all too easy to focus solely on those divisions.
It is also easy to see why we might feel this way. We are a nation made up of many nations. There are different colors, accents, cultures, creeds, and religions. We live in a democracy where we can and do express our many and varied opinions, often creating backlash from those who think differently. And then there are the conflict entrepreneurs, who pit us against each other for financial and/or political gain.
If blood, culture, and background don't unite us, what does? In the midst of our seeming discord, I encourage you take some time during this July 4th milestone to think about how we are actually bound together. Start with our Declaration of Independence's iconic "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" opening statement to find our fundamental truth. This realization points to several shared values that are so foundational, they have become substitutes in this country for the old biological ties:
Freedom - Americans are, first and foremost, freedom-loving people. So many of our ancestors came here seeking a life that wasn't subject to the whims of all-powerful overlords.
Opportunity - People also came to this country seeking to break out of whatever caste system they had been born into, so they could make a better life for themselves and their children.
Equality - Though always a work in progress, the ideal of blind justice is at the heart of American democracy. Rights and privileges are given to people not because they were born into a certain family, but because God gives all human beings these rights.
These are essential democratic values. They bind us together with a unifying spirit and create a single team out of a diverse set of players, as our traditional motto—E Pluribus Unum—indeed extols!
The same spirit should apply to our economic system, another ideal that is a continuous work in progress. Seeing each other as part of a greater economic team not only makes us feel united, it brings out the best in us because we consider our teammates' well-being in addition to our own.
In this view, we want everyone to have the same opportunity for life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness that we do. If our business achieves financial success, we gladly share the rewards with those who helped create it. We understand that to be satisfied with enough creates long-term prosperity for both ourselves and those whose lives our financial ventures touch. We also realize that this kind of thinking is not just beneficial for individuals, but for our country as a whole.
What would America look like if we implemented this economic vision? I imagine a country that, 250 years from now, is happier and more prosperous than it has ever been. Americans are brilliant at pulling together when the circumstances call for it, and now is one of those times. On this anniversary, my hope is that we will refocus on the things that unite us, implement this vision, and continue the extraordinary legacy that we celebrate this weekend.
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