America, according to George Grant’s
Technology and Empire: In Defense of North America has a primal aspect not seen in other modern countries today. There are various reasons as to why this is true but the “why” is only the beginning. A careful look at the examples and points made by Grant show not only where
America has been and why it when down that path but also where it is quickly approaching. Each nation has its beginnings that are based on where its predecessors left off. That basis also counts for much of the reasons why a country acts a certain way and the choices it will make later in its “life.”
America is different. While America had Britain as its “parent nation” it developed in land that was not yet tame and was based on a constitution that was not normative. For this reason,
America, as it is racing to a crucial point in history in regards to its growth and technological advancement, must act wisely if it is to stay as innocent and optimistic as it has been the past two hundred years.
The Europeans of today’s world inherited a land that was already conquered. According to Joseph Conrad in his book Heart of Darkness, London has a heart of darkness but it is restrained by generations of civilization. The British from who we came, therefore, were masters of an already conquered land. They had had time to cultivate philosophers, theologians and statesmen on whom the rest of the nation can reflect and rely. These people, because of their distance from the heart of darkness, can contemplate many things, including the purpose for which they are here and the direction that will take them. America, on the other hand, has a much shorter history and therefore necessarily a lack of the contemplative powers that Britain and Europe as a whole have.
The early Americans had to conquer the land. The land upon which they landed was wild and untamed. The Native Americans in North America were not conquerors. They lived in unity with the land, an actual part of the darkness, just like the tribes of deep Africa in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. We were the first, then, like Marlow to enter and attempt to conquer the land.
The early fathers and pioneers of this country who were fighting the land and seeking to control it had little time to contemplate what they were doing and the consequences thereof. These men and women, being either from Europe themselves or the children of those who arrived by ship, were new to this “conquering” and were always coming up against new challenges. It is not to say that these challenges were new to mankind but that they were new to this generation of humans who, fresh from Europe and civilization, were ill-prepared to face the dangers incumbent to the primal darkness of America. This being the case, the early settlers knew they had little time to overcome these hurdles were they to survive. These challenges had to be met with action and application. There was no time for them to seek out a remedy or reason through contemplation. They simply just had to act.
One of the major advantages these pilgrims did have was their religion. The very cause of their split with England enabled them to face the land despite their conditioning in the civilized world. Calvinism, and in general, Protestantism, argues for a faith in which action is preeminent and application of that action is applied to everyday life. Britain’s Anglican Church, however, followed the Aristotelian tradition, a tradition of contemplation. While this tradition is useful and beneficiary to those who live in civilized society, it is entirely unsuited to a people trying to conquer and live in new territory. The emphasis on the application of religion by being proactive taught, or conditioned, the early Americans to apply industry rather than contemplation to all that they did.
Another enablement the early Americans had was the separation of church and state. In England, the king ruled by what is called divine right. In this tradition, the king rules because God himself ordained it. Therefore to go against the king is to go against God. This is important in that the first settlers then, according to European thought, were going against God himself by declaring independence from Britain. This type of religion, as you can see, placed strict restraints on progress. Monarchies in general are notorious for being guardians of tradition and very controlling and this effect is multiplied if one declares that they rule by an act of God, for to disobey any command would mean disobeying your Creator. The separation of church and state in America allowed for traditionalists to keep their traditions and status quo while at the same time enabling the government, politics, and the industrial revolution to charge ahead, free from the chains of traditionalism. In this way, the progression and advancement of technology became America’s “pseudo-official” religion, for it is truly with zeal that Americans have pursued advancement in every area of society.
Incidentally, despite this major difference between the two continents, we both seem to have arrived at very similar conclusions as to the end of man. Through contemplative thought and discussion, the great thinkers of European history have almost completely acceded to a nihilistic religion that believes the goal and end of man is to progress and advance in every way possible. The embodiment of this thought appears to have manifested itself in American industry. The relentless way in which America is constantly moving forward in all her enterprises would make one believe that we share the same nihilism that our neighbors across the sea do. Fortunately, for us, that is where the similarity ends. If one moves to a more than cursory look at the two nations, one can see that America’s nihilism is rather innocent and optimistic whereas Europe’s is exceedingly pessimistic in its outlook. America has been so busy conquering and figuring out ways to control its new land that it has not had the time to stand back and take a long look at the way in which technology, and the advancement thereof, seems to rule our nation. Britain, on the other hand, the civilized land from which we came, has had time to reflect. Its pinnacle of imperialism has come and gone and what is left is the knowledge of what all that industry does to a nation. Despite the tangled way in which the church and the monarchy co-exist in England, its industrialization won out in the end. The church had become commonplace, to the point where its restraints were no longer powerful enough to slow the progress of technology and its by-product, the religion of nihilism. England today can be described as post-modern or post-Christianization and the contemplative efforts of its contemporary thinkers have seen and judged that the imperialistic nihilism it sought and believed in is not truly the true end of mankind.
America, being so busy with the subduing of itself, had little time to notice the direction in which it was heading. All the challenges were taken head on and ultimately defeated by the action oriented beliefs of its population. This belief and religion of technology has thus far served and survived its people well. America, however, is quickly approaching the same point where, as in England, the people will have to decide where we go from here. We are not so far removed from the beginning of our nation that we do not feel the pull of the darkness that was so prevalent and now shackled. Yet, we are far enough removed that we now have the time to think contemplatively and in doing this we are entering known territory. In conquering the land, America did not have a readily available modern example to follow and therefore had to “fend for herself” in the first couple hundred years of its existence. The point we are reaching today has many examples in the European nations that we can follow because we are not too far removed from the time when they also had to make the choices and observations America will have to make.
Because we do have examples, one could allow themselves some ray of hope. We do not have to make the same choices as Britain did. The nihilism we have hereto followed need not be the same “religion” we follow until we too are considered “post-modern.” If we look hard enough, and the contemplators contemplate correctly, we can learn from our predecessor’s mistakes. We can look back over each “father” nation as we shape our decision and direction. We do not have to stand on our own two stunted legs. In history, America is truly a dwarf, not only in length of history but in the richness and fullness of it. Therefore if we ever hope to achieve that fullness, and perhaps even gain more or see further than our predecessors, we will need to pick carefully on which giant’s shoulders we should stand.
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