American Baby

It has been written that every revolution carries within it the seeds of its own demise. So too with the American Revolution. But what are those seeds? And how can we know when and where they are growing?

The American Revolution was at its core, as referred to by most foreign powers of the day, a "Sovereignty Movement". The American people wanted freedom, not just from the British Monarchy, but from any and all forms of governance. An institution as old as human civilization itself, the government was regarded as unnecessary, a source of humanity's woes, and something which created more problems than it solved.

The original replacements to the British Royal Crown's Magna Carta were the Articles of Confederation. No one in America really likes to talk about them, because they were such a fragile set of founding documents that the resultant government collapsed into Anarchy almost overnight. The Founding Fathers had to go back to the drawing board in order to "create a more perfect Union", and their result was the Constitution, which established the Federal Republic we know today as the United States of America. But there were many in America who yearned for a return to the days of complete decentralization. They became known as Anti-Federalists, and their radical ideology inherited many of the original Sovereignty Movement's goals: chiefly, the abolition of government.

As with most movements, when taken to its extremes, Sovereignty becomes something we find revolting, like a hideously contorted reflection we see of ourselves in the mirror. That image today takes the form of "Sovereign Citizens": a group of Midwestern American Anarchists who view themselves as being citizens of no nation. They carry no identifying documents, they obey no laws, and they practice vigilantism against those who have offended them, including any and all public servants.

If you've ever spoken with a police officer who has happened upon a Sovereign Citizen, you would understand how dangerous they are. One particular traffic stop I heard of began with a vehicle with no license plate or vehicle inspection papers, a driver with no driver's license, and armed passengers who refused any and all commands to comply with the officer, under the grounds that they were not citizens subject to his authority. Such stops can quickly escalate into shootouts that leave both police officers and civilian witnesses dead.

It may sound horrendous, but it is also a uniquely American phenomenon, which you rarely find among the Old World continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, or even Oceania. And it is born directly of the American Revolution almost 250 years ago.

We are grappling as a people today with dictatorship. Foreign powers, emboldened by the asymmetric battlefields of the 21st century, are undermining our Democratic values, influencing our elections, and attempting to establish and prop up an American Puppet State. In the midst of all of this, it would seem foolish to warn about the decentralization of power in our country.

And yet, that is precisely what I would warn anyone reading this of. For it is my view that the American Experiment, if it ever ends in failure, will do so poetically: We will fall, not to any external threat, but to infighting fueled by our own cravings for individualism and freedom. And our descent into complete and utter anarchy and chaos will serve as a warning to humanity for the rest of time, that universal selfishness comes at a terrible societal price.