Enlightenment

Occasionally we all read old ideas expressed in new contexts that help make sense of the world. Today, I read this piece in Slate by Fukuyama, and he reminded me of a critical distinction in American democracy. At once, it is both beautiful and peculiar.

At least aspirationally, the success of the American experiment is that we cherish and promote individual rights, not communal rights. Yes, we've been historically slow to extend civil rights to individuals within certain communities and even to acknowledge that individuals may be valued who are members of disfavored groups, but the successful trend has been right and steady. Today, as Fukuyama notes, Guatamalan, Korean, Nigerian, Candadian and white European immigrants all can call themselves Americans. Americans, at least most righteous Americans, welcome them and the opportunity of sharing our national identity with people of all shades, from all lands, who come to contribute to our social compact.

In Western Europe and Iraq now, we see the dangers of extending constitutional democracy when the cultural and political structures emphasize community status, not individual rights. I have my doubts that republican democracy ever can thrive when the old, old social forces cannot contemplate that individuals are the foremost unit of political life.