On American Freedom: A Critique of the Country’s Core Value with a Reform Agenda PDF
Preview On American Freedom: A Critique of the Country’s Core Value with a Reform Agenda
On American Freedom This page intentionally left blank On American Freedom A Critique of the Country’s Core Value with a Reform Agenda Kenneth E. Morris on american freedom Copyright © Kenneth E. Morris, 2014. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-43589-7 All rights reserved. First published in 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-49328-9 ISBN 978-1-137-42841-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137428417 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Morris, Kenneth Earl, 1955– On American freedom : a critique of the country’s core value with a reform agenda / Kenneth E. Morris. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Liberty—United States. 2. Liberty—Philosophy. 3. Federal government—United States. I. Title. JC599.U5M69 2014 320.9730191—dc23 2014000702 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: July 2014 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 In memory of father Earl William Morris (1919–2007) “[W]hoever seriously considers the immense extent of territory comprehended within the limits of the United States . . . will receive it as an intuitive truth, that a consolidated republican form of government therein, can never . . . secure the blessings of liberty to you and your posterity. . . . It is natural, says Montesquieu, to a republic to have only a small territory, otherwise it cannot long subsist. . . . In large republics, the public good is sacrificed to a thousand views. . . . The extent of many of the states of the Union, is at this time almost too great for the superintendence of a republican form of government, and must one day . . . be reduced.” George Clinton, governor of New York and vice president of the United States, New York Journal, October 25, 1787 This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Chapter 1 Introduction: The Puzzle of Freedom 1 The Main Meanings of Freedom 5 An Orienting Value of Freedom 14 Remembering the Republic in Republicanism 27 Chapter 2 From Republics to a National Empire 35 Original Compromises 36 The Rise of the Militaristic Empire 43 The Rise of the Imperial Oligarchy 54 The Empire Becomes a Nation 65 Chapter 3 The Return of Feudalism 79 A Critique of the Free-Market Idea of Freedom 82 Jobholding in the US Economy 93 The Political Foundations of the New Feudalism 106 The Instinct for Workmanship 120 Chapter 4 American Stoicism 125 The Curious Religious Roots of American Freedom 126 Freedom and the Consumption of Domesticity 131 A Culture of Domesticated Freedom 137 Rejecting Republics 145 Nature Mystified 149 The Absent Alternative 153 viii l Contents Chapter 5 A Place for Freedom 155 America’s Natural Republics 159 Deficiencies in the Natural Republics 163 Current Metropolitan Reform Agendas 166 American City-States 172 “Necessary” and “Expressly” 182 Saving the Embassy 186 Notes 195 Acknowledgments An earlier version of this book benefitted from partial critical readings by Andy Nathan of Columbia University and Chris Rehn of Dordt College, as well as two fuller critical reading by anonymous peer reviewers engaged by Penn State University Press. I postponed revising the book then in order to write another, Unfinished Revolution: Daniel Ortega and Nicaragua’s Struggle for Liberation, only to discover when I returned to it that Sandy Thatcher had retired as the editorial director of Penn State University Press and his replacement discontinued the press’s list in US poli- tics. Fortunately, Palgrave Macmillan agreed to publish the book instead. I therefore want to thank my editor at Palgrave Macmillan, Brian O’Connor, as well another anonymous reviewer engaged by that press. Nevertheless, I want to thank Sandy for his support in the early stages. The recent revision process benefitted from additional critical readings by Ray Yang of Colorado State University and Richard Morley, a former professor and now a family therapist in Atlanta. Helpful suggestions were also offered by William Finlay of the University of Georgia. All along, the central argument of this book was shaped by discussions with Burt Sparer, a retired city planner who launched a sensational 30-year “encore career” as an activist for the kinds of cities he believed possible. Burt helped me to see social life from the standpoint of the minutia—lane widths, zoning ordinances, federal-state funding formulas, and so forth. It was therefore with considerable delight that upon rereading The Federalist Papers I found James Madison arguing from such geographic detail that a surveyor’s tripod was almost presupposed. I became convinced that most of us are so enmeshed in the nation-state and beholden to its ideologies that we fail to appreciate how values like freedom are ultimately realized or not in the political-geography of more proximate space. Unfortunately, Burt died before I finished the book—but not before leaving his mark on both the book and me.
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