Liberty Defined and Decentralized
four cultures from America's beginning that still persist today
I’ve heard it said that America doesn’t have one distinct culture. If I were pressed on the issue, the term “self-determination,” although unfortunately fading within the country, would be the term I would use to describe Americans in general. However, it’s more accurate to say that distinctly varying cultures exist, because, just as this country was founded on a philosophy of decentralization, its cultural beliefs in regards to nearly everything, liberty included, are also decentralized, going back to before 1776.
David Hackett Fischer’s book Albion's Seed is about the four British folkways that came to America and eventually established the four most prominent cultures that still exist in some sense today — these being the Puritans, the Virginia/Anglicans, the Quakers, and the Borderland/Backcountry folks. The book covers everything from “work ways” to “building ways” to “child rearing ways,” but in this writing I will only cover these cultures’ varying definitions of liberty.
Presently, when “liberty” is evoked, it’s a term said by the user that’s typically meant to be a general and all-compassing concept, despite the user assuredly possessing an idea of liberty that has with it some form of hierarchy of values, one that may differ completely with another’s definition of the term. According to Fischer’s book, the four folkways also had various definitions of liberty. The Puritans believe in Ordered Liberty, the Anglicans in Hegemonic Liberty, the Quakers in Reciprocal Liberty, and the Backcountry folk in Natural Liberty.
While what I’m about to propose is certainly not a perfect fit, as is always the case when categorizing groups into political boxes, I believe these four differing philosophies of liberty can still speak to the existing political divide in the country, as well as be roughly fit into four political groups that makeup the majority of the loudest voices in American politics today. These four groups can be simplified into two subcategories: left and right authoritarians who believe in a larger role for government in people’s everyday lives; and left and right libertarians who believe in a minimized or no government role in people’s everyday lives.
First, Ordered Liberty belongs in the authoritarian left section. Now it’s not accurate to relate the authoritarian left with the Puritans religiously as the term relates to the Christian faith. However, this section of the quadrant certainly has a religious-like devotion to the state. And they believe that it’s the state that provides and even enforces the particular liberties they view as essential. Equality, belief in Following The Science, and an expansive welfare state are “liberties” that should be endowed and ordered upon the general populous. Ordering the “liberties” is a purification of the state, such as the historical Puritans desired to purify the Christian faith. This idea of ordered liberty was more communal than individual and when certain liberties were granted or “allowed,” they were done-so often at the expense of individual liberty. In fact, “liberty” is often an oxymoron with this group, but their effective utilization of Machiavellian power should be studied.
Secondly, the authoritarian right of the political spectrum belongs to those who believed in Hegemonic Liberty. This sort of liberty, while still community oriented but in a more aristocratic sense, was more individual than that of the Puritans, with the individuality being determined by a hierarchy of values that the leaders of the Virginians — now authoritarian right — determined to be most essential. Basically, which liberties should be protected and which should be neglected is still prominent, but not so much directed toward the “common good,” as was the case with the Puritans. As for the hierarchy of values, for this group gun rights are typically more important than civil liberties The same goes for American self-determination (Virginia self-determination back then) being more important than the self-determination of another country. This group also, although more likely to pay lip service to it now, does not equate liberty with equality, especially when it relates to being pro-tradition within the borders of the United States.
For the libertarian left, I’ve determined that the Quaker’s definition of liberty best fits. And again, not because they’re religiously devout in their faith as the Quakers were. Rather, again like the top left, they do express religious devotion but the devotion is directed towards the individual and the idea of “live and let live.” Which is where the Quaker’s idea of Reciprocal Liberty comes in: they believed a person not only had the right to do what was right, but they also had the right to do that which was wrong. There’s certainly a place for this sort of liberty. However, there are some downsides. Depending on how devoted one is to the idea, it can sometimes lead to exposure to things we personally don’t want exposure to, to an enabling and sometimes even glorification of drug culture, and some trampling upon this group can and will be had, due to the naïveté that “live and let live” sometimes brings about. And presently, this group is often quick to fall in line with ever expanding identity politics because of their devotion to protecting minority groups.
The libertarian right is represented by the Borderland/Backcountry folks who believed in the idea of Natural Liberty. Not only does this fit because you’re likely to hear the concept of “natural rights” from this group the most, but you also see — similar to the top right — a hierarchy of liberty being espoused by this group; but this hierarchy is not so much determined by the leaders of the group but is instead determined by nature, and sometimes even natural will. Perhaps you won’t hear “may the strongest liberty value survive” coming from the mouths of these folks very often, but it will often be implied in the way that they live and interact. To put it simply, while the rights of the individual and the group he or she belongs to is very important to the bottom left, it’s the rights of the individual and his or her immediate family that’s most important to the bottom right. The book sums of this idea of liberty quite well: “every man at nature’s table has a right to elbow room,” and this often results in some clashes over who gets elbow room in certain personal spaces.
As I stated at the beginning, the comparisons don’t fit in perfectly. And certainly there are elements of the very top left and right that don’t believe in liberty at all. However, I believe there’s something to be gained in making the comparisons, this being an argument for further decentralization. The United States is, of course, larger and more scattered than it was when these four groups first came over. And new elements of different cultures have been sprinkled in. But even so, certain distinctions of these groups remain. Political cultures are not something to dismiss, especially ones that have existed for some time. So instead of trying to fit everyone into the same box, it would behoove us to find ways to decentralize — a concept that is distinctly American — into the political culture that best suits us as individuals and communities.
This is obviously easier said than done. Radical decentralization, secession and national divorce wouldn’t be a smooth and clean breakaway. But one of the beginning points of separation is to better understand why it’s necessary and why it would actually be a return to America’s roots. And I believe a brief history of the distinct peoples who first established the most prominent, yet different cultures that still persist today is one of those beginning points.
For more on Albion’s Seed and American culture Brion Mclanahan recently did an episode on the subject on his podcast, in which he reviews and refutes an Atlantic article that also speaks of four different American cultures. And speaking of podcasts, this week I had the privilege of going on the Driveway Liberty Podcast and had a fun conversation with those guys. You can find the episode here.