In an August 1815 letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams reminisced about the American Revolution: “What do we mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an Effect and Consequence of it. The Revolution was in the Minds of the People…”
Adams goes on to wonder about the “Steps by which the public opinion was enlightened and informed concerning the Authority of Parliament over the Colonies.” I often think about this necessary revolution in the minds of the people when considering how sociopolitical and economic change can come about in Cuba after more than six decades of totalitarian rule. Such a change requires a revolution in the minds of the people regarding the theories and practice of government.
We believe that liberty is an aspiration of all human beings. And yet, freedom has been historically rare and continues to be scarce. Most societies have been unable to develop a state with the capacity to enforce laws, resolve conflicts, and provide public services while remaining in the control of an assertive society. Powerful states abound, but many use their power for repression and dominance rather than to promote individual liberties.
In oppressed societies there is a society-wide disconnect between moral thought and moral action. A disconnect, that is, between what people say, and what they do or fail to do. In his book, America’s Revolutionary Mind, C. Bradley Thompson, Professor of Political Philosophy at Clemson University, makes the point that “…individuals must be free to act on their judgement if they are to pursue the values necessary to sustain and advance their lives.” He adds: “Quite possibly the greatest achievement of the American Revolution was to free men to follow the dictates of their own minds guided by unencumbered reason.”
For Thomas Paine, the political theorist and revolutionary author of Common Sense (1776), one of the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, the Revolution was about more than independence. It was an intellectual and moral revolution that replaced the “tyranny and the antiquity of habit” that had “established itself over the mind.”
Such an intellectual and moral revolution is one that needs to happen in order for sociopolitical and economic change to come about in Cuba. To be clear, I am not referring to a simple change in government or even to the end of the Castro regime. That may happen without necessarily bringing about the profound sociopolitical and economic changes needed for a free and prosperous society.
An expanded government requires diminished liberty. Any function we ask of government requires us to surrender a measure of our freedom, and our treasure. And yet, many peoples favor an expanded government. When speaking with recent arrivals from Cuba or Latin America, I often hear statements like: Why doesn’t the government do this, or that? It seems that intuitively they favor an expanded government; that is to say they favor diminished liberty.
Underlying this mistaken belief in the role of government is a misunderstanding of the nature of rights. Our natural rights are not created by government nor do they come from history, culture, or religion as dictatorial regimes like to claim. Thomas Jefferson noted: man has rights that “nature has given to all men.” These are natural rights that no government can take away or curtail. These rights are “derived from the laws of nature” and are not a gift from any government.
This understanding of human rights needs to be embraced by oppressed peoples to initiate their societies’ sociopolitical change towards liberty. It is a doctrine of human rights anchored on our freedom to think, and to act as a necessary condition of our human flourishing. During the American Revolution the ultimate goal, as Jefferson put it, was to remove “all arbitrary and unnecessary restraint on individual action,” thus leaving men “free to do whatever does not violate the equal rights of another.”
This is a revolution of the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people. This revolution in the minds of the people is the lodestar of liberty.
Dr. Azel‘s latest book is “Reflections on Freedom.”
“The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author”.
