by Miles H. Hodges – The Covenant Nation

The Pilgrims agreeing to bring the virtues of Puritan social norms to America ... where they would live in mutual service to each other as equals− just as they were such equals in the eyes of God

It’s always a bit wrong to lump social movements into single categories ... as social movements can be quite complex.  Wrong yes, but useful for the purpose of understanding the world of social dynamics ... useful as long as we remain aware of the dangers of going too far in our categorization of these movements. 

So ... with that caution, I bring before you the idea that there are two Americas − and have always been two Americas − more or less in conflict with each other.  Understanding this American dualism helps us to understand what exploded in the mid-1800s as America’s most violent war, its Civil War ... or as the Southerners term it, its War between the States!  But actually, I am more interested in how that same dualism is shaking America today.

But that dualism has its own history, a history that if we look at it closely, we will better understand the way that this dualism has come down to us today.  And yes, our Civil War is an important part of that dualism.

But that dualism goes all the way back (four centuries!) to America’s founding in the early 1600s.  There were basically Two Americas that were founded back then:  Virginia in the South and New England in the North.  The two British colonies were each founded for quite purposeful − and quite different – reasons.   One was founded on the desire to find the wealth – like the Spanish − that would not only make the American settlers rich, but also improve greatly their social status.  However − unlike the Spanish − they found no gold ...  but soon found that the drug tobacco could be a similar source of wealth ... such wealth as to qualify them as belonging to some version of the British aristocracy.  

The other America was founded on the desire to set up a society in which the settlers would model in their social life a strong sense of Christian social principle, social principle that would help the broader world understand how God himself wanted all humankind to live.

In a sense, both colonies were following social trends well in place back in their homeland of England.  Virginia was simply following the social model long in place in England (and across Europe), a social model we term feudalism ... in which all social authority flowed from top down – from kings and aristocrats (with their own ranks of greater and lesser as aristocracy) down to peasants and even serfs ... with a small middle class somewhere in between.  The feudal political game was somehow to raise oneself and one’s family higher in this social pyramid ... even though there was little likelihood of someone with a peasant background (the vast majority of the English population) of being able to make such a move.  Basically, peasants played no role in the political game.  But social advancement was possible for members of the middle class and the lower-ranking members of the aristocracy.  And thus they came to Virginia to find the wealth that would enable them to present the visible appearance (most importantly, a fancy plantation home) of a living at a higher social rank than the one they were born to.  No one born and raised within England’s feudal system thought that this was in any fashion an improper way to go at life.

But crashing into that feudal realm was a very strong religious movement, mockingly termed “Puritanism.”  “Puritans” were deeply scorned because of the “purist” ways (strongly Biblical Christian) by which they readily opposed England’s long-standing feudal system.

Ultimately, finding the opposition to their “puritan” ways so strong in England, they made their move to America − to the territory north of Virginia recently identified as “New England.”  And there in New England they very purposely set up towns and villages to live by their Puritan moral-spiritual standards (they now graciously accepted the label “Puritan”!) ... standards built importantly on the equality of all their members – and the sharing of their lives with each other on an equal basis.   Even their leaders abandoned all pretense to aristocratic superiority.  They did so because they were certain that this was precisely how God wanted them to live.

So which of these two Americas ought to be the proper social model for America in these times?  It certainly seems clear that the feudal model is back in power, with the today’s American goal in life being the improvement of one’s social standing ... regardless of the costs. 

But it’s a feudal system that’s not working very well.  Who today can afford a prestigious college degree, or even – as a young family – afford to own their own home?  Most sadly, Americans are having to come under the social and economic authority of the increasingly wealthy ... some of them vastly so − like feudal aristocrats who lived economically, socially and politically way above the rest of society.  Is this the model Americans should be following today?

But with a declining “puritan” attitude in America about living Christ’s Way ... what’s there to turn this trend towards feudalism around ... and get us back in place as a society once set up to be a model for the world as to how God – not human ambition – should lead us. 

Miles Hodges is a writer, historian and political analyst who explores the question of why societies behave as they do ... especially in this matter of their rise and fall.