THINKER'S ALMANAC - July 4

Subject:  Reasoning - Jefferson’s Declaration

Event:  The Declaration of Independence, 1776

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Today we celebrate the Declaration of Independence of 1776. Thomas Jefferson, only 33 years old at the time, was chosen to write a draft of the Declaration. One of the masterworks of both literary and political prose, the Declaration opens with a 71-word sentence that although long is clearly and precisely worded:

 

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation (1).

                                                         Image by Venita Oberholster from Pixabay

Although the preamble is Jefferson’s, a comparison of his drafts shows that he was influenced by others like English philosopher John Locke and an earlier Declaration of Rights written by the Virginian George Mason. Another clear influence was Thomas Paine, whose pamphlet Common Sense, published in January 1776, used plain language to ignite revolutionary fervor in the colonists. In fact, Paine gave us the modern sense of the word “revolution” as change, as opposed to describing the movements of the planets.

 

In addition to being influenced by others, Jefferson got help with revisions.  His document underwent 40 changes and 630 deleted words as drafts were presented to the Committee of Five and Congress. The date on the Declaration of Independence reads July 4, 1776, but a more accurate date is probably July 2nd when the actual proposal to declare independence was ratified. According to Bill Bryson in Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States, only two of the 57 signers of the Declaration did so on July 4th, Charles Thomson and John Hancock. Hancock's large signature later became synonymous with signing your name.

 

The official signing did not take place until August 2nd and the names of the signers, for fear of retaliation, were not released until January 1777. Signing such a document was no small act. It was considered treason, and according to Bryson: “The penalty for treason was to be hanged, cut down while still alive, disemboweled and forced to watch your organs burned before your eyes, then beheaded and quartered” (2).

 

Stories of the Declaration of Independence being read in Philadelphia on July 4th to the ringing of the Liberty Bell are a myth since the first public reading was on July 8th , and “there is no record of any bells being rung. Indeed, though the Liberty Bell was there, it was not so called until 1847 . . . . “(2).

 

One year later, however, on July 4, 1777 there is a record of celebrations and parades on the first anniversary of independence. It is also on this date that a new word appeared: fireworks, which previously had been called rockets.

 

At the core of the Declaration is a list of 27 specific grievances that provide the rationale for revolution.  American school children learn mainly about “taxation without representation” (#17), but as you can see by the parallel list below, American colonists had many more reasons to be unhappy with the British monarchy:

 

1.      He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

2.      He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

3.      He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

4.      He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

5.      He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

6.      He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

7.      He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

8.      He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

9.      He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

10.  He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

11.  He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

12.  He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

13.  He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

14.  For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

15.  For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

16.  For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

17.  For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

18.  For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

19.  For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

20.  For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

21.  For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

22.  For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

23.  He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

24.  He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

25.  He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

26.  He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

27.  He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

Challenge: Multiple Reasons to Celebrate

What is a claim that you believe so strongly that you can support it with multiple specific reasons?  Just as Thomas Jefferson declared the independence of the Thirteen Colonies and justified it by listing 27 reasons, your mission is to enumerate the multiple reasons you support your claim.   

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

July 4, 1956:  At a Fourth of July family picnic, Milton Levine had a eureka moment when he spotted a mound of ants.  The ant mound made him nostalgic, remembering how as a boy he would collect ants in jars at his uncle’s Pennsylvania farm.  Turning to his brother-in-law and business partner, E.J. Cossman, Levine exclaimed, “We should make an antarium.”  Milton’s brainstorm gave birth to Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm, which has allowed more than 20 million children to marvel, watching ants at work in the subterranean tunnels encased in plastic (3).

Sources:

1 – Declaration of Independence. 

2 - Bryson, Bill. Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States.  New York:  William Morrow, 1995.

3-Hevesi, Dennis.  Milton M. Levine, Inventor of Ant Farm, Dies at 97.  The New York Times  29 January 2011.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - July 3

Subject:  Cynicism - Diogenes

Event:  Dog Days of Summer

The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. -William Shakespeare

Today is the first day of what is known as the Dog Days of Summer.  The association of summer with “man’s best friend” comes to our language via ancient astronomy.  During the period from July 3 through August 11, the Dog Star, Sirius, rises in conjunction with the Sun.  Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky and is part of the constellation Canis Major, Latin for Greater Dog.  

Some ancient Romans believed that the sultry heat of the Dog Days was explained by the combined heat of Sirius and the sun; however, in the days before the telescope, this belief was more prominent among the superstitious than serious students of the stars (1).

The Dog Days are an apt time to consider an ancient Greek school of philosophy that got its name from its association with dog-like behavior:  The Cynics.  

The Cynics were the hippies of the 3rd century BC, living simply with the fewest possessions possible.  For the Cynics, individual freedom was the most vital marker of a successful life.  They rejected and challenged traditional conventions, valuing, instead, living a life in accordance with nature.  

                                                          Image by Péter Göblyös from Pixabay

The Greek word “cynic” means dog-like.  Today we define a “cynic” as someone who views their fellow humans as motivated purely by selfish self-interest.  This is not the same meaning as what it means to be a capital “C” Cynic.  The Cynics were motivated by freedom, and like dogs, they were not embarrassed to beg in public or even to defecate in the streets.  Furthermore, like dogs, they often barked at people, expressing contempt for wealth, power, or privilege.

The scholar Gilbert Highet, described the Cynic philosophy as follows:

Live without conventions, which are artificial and false; escape complexities and superfluities and extravagances: only so can you live a free life. The rich man believes he possesses his big house with its many rooms and its elaborate furniture, his pictures and expensive clothes, his horses and his servants and his bank accounts. He does not. He depends on them, he worries about them, he spends most of his life's energy looking after them; the thought of losing them makes him sick with anxiety. They possess him. He is their slave. In order to procure a quantity of false, perishable goods he has sold the only true, lasting good, his own independence. (2)

The best-known of all the Cynics was Diogenes.  He was born in the Greek city of Sinope into a family of means.  His father, Hicesias, was the town’s mint master, responsible for issuing coins.  According to one legend, Diogenes and his father were exiled after Hicesias was accused of defacing the city’s coins.  Fleeing Sinope, Diogenes traveled to consult the oracle of Delphi.  When Diogenes asked what his next steps should be, the oracle replied, “Deface the currency.”  Diogenes took the oracle's response as a challenge to restamp the metaphorical currency of society, replacing its “counterfeit” values and conventional morality with something truly valuable and honest.

At this point he turned the shame of his exile into a badge of honor, proclaiming himself a cosmopolitan -- a citizen of the world (3).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:   How do the values of a Cynic like Diogenes contrast with traditional values?

Challenge - Dog Day Dogma

The Cynics looked to the dog for lessons on how to live a good life.  What other philosophical lessons or general lessons about life might we learn from examining the characteristics of man’s best friend?

Sources:  

1-Rao, Joe.  'Dog Days' of Summer Have Celestial Origin. 13 August 2010. Space.com

2-Highet, Gilbert.  DIOGENES AND ALEXANDER.

3- Miller, James.  Examined Lives - From Socrates to Nietzsche. 

New York:  Picador, 2011:  75-86.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - July 2

 

Subject:  Education - Maurice Hilleman

Event:  The Morrill Act is signed into law by Abraham Lincoln, 1862

Let us in education dream of an aristocracy of achievement rising out of a democracy of opportunity. -Thomas Jefferson

On this day in 1862, amid the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Land-Grant College Act into law.  Also known as the Morrill Act, the law expanded and democratized American higher education, providing opportunities for the children of farm and factory workers.  

The chief sponsor of the legislation was Justin Morrill, a long-serving lawmaker from Vermont.  The son of a blacksmith, Morrill had little formal education himself.  Nevertheless, he had the foresight to expand educational opportunities beyond just the privileged elite (1).

     Image by David Yu from Pixabay

One example of the long-term benefits of the Morrill Act is the story of Maurice Hilleman.  After growing up on a farm and graduating from high school in 1937, Hilleman was about to take a job as an assistant manager of a J.C. Penney store in Miles City, Montana.  Instead of taking the job, however, Hilleman took the advice of his older brother and applied for a scholarship at Montana State University -- one of the land-grant colleges established by the Morrill Act.  Hilleman got the scholarship, graduated first in his class, and then earned a graduate degree in microbiology at the University of Chicago.  You may have never heard of Maurice Hilleman, but his work in fighting diseases such as measles, mumps, and pneumonia might just have saved your life.  He developed eight of the 14 standard recommended vaccines.  In developing these vaccines, Hillman applied his experiences growing up on a farm by incubating viruses in chicken eggs.  

Another beneficiary of a land-grant college is the American author Sarah Vowell.  Writing in The New York Times in 2018, Vowell celebrated her college experience:

Like Hilleman, I might not have attended college but for M.S.U. It was what I could afford. And I’ve come to appreciate the E pluribus unum implications of having been thrown together with 10,000 Mormons, Crow, Future Farmers of America and flower children’s children whose only shared experience was that we all graduated from high school within a 400-mile radius of Great Falls. No surprise, Oprah Winfrey and Johnny Carson attended land-grant colleges in Tennessee and Nebraska — you do learn how to talk to anyone. (2)

The Morrill Act signed by President Lincoln gave each state public land that could be sold to raise endowment funds for public colleges.  For each Senator and Representative a state had, it received 30,000 acres.

Millions of Americans, like Hilleman and Vowell, have seen their lives improved by the education provided by a land-grant college. 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How did the Morrill Act democratize education in America?

Challenge - Don’t Take the Land-Grant Colleges for Granted

Research one specific land-grant college in the United States.  When was it established?  And what makes this college or university unique?  

Sources:

1-Clinger, James C. July 2, 1862: President Abraham Lincoln Signs the Morrill Act Establishing Land Grant Colleges. Constitutingamerica.org. 

2-Vowell, Sarah.  “A University of, by and for the People.”  The New York Times 2 February 2018.

Thinker's Almanac - July 1

 

Subject: Thinking and Writing - The Elements of Style

Event:  Birthday of William Strunk Jr., 1869

Fortunately, the act of composition, or creation, disciplines the mind; writing is one way to go about thinking, and the practice and habit of writing not only drain the mind but supply it, too.  -William Strunk, Jr.

Today is the birthday of William Strunk, Jr. (1869-1946), the author of one of the most influential writing guides ever written, The Elements of Style.  Strunk originally created his guide in 1918 as an unpublished pamphlet for his students at Cornell University.  After Strunk died in 1946, his former student, the author E.B. White (Best known for his book Charlotte’s Web), revised and expanded Strunk’s work.  When it was published in 1959, The Elements of Style became a bestseller and to date has sold over 10 million copies.

Today, the guide -- commonly referred to as “Strunk and White” -- has become probably the most universally respected reference work for writers.  It’s also designed for readers, however.  In his introduction, White expresses his teacher’s sympathy for the reader:

Will felt that the reader was in serious trouble most of the time, floundering in a swamp, and that it was the duty of anyone attempting to write English to drain this swamp quickly and get the reader up on dry ground, or at least to throw a rope.

In addition to a rope, Strunk and White provide concise principles of composition:  eleven commandments for crafting sentences, paragraphs, and compositions:

1. Choose a suitable design and stick to it.

2. Make the paragraph the unit of composition.

3. Use the active voice.

4. Put statements in positive form.

5. Use definite, specific, concrete language.

6. Omit needless words.

7. Avoid a succession of loose sentences.

8. Express coordinate ideas in similar form.

9. Keep related words together.

10. In summaries, keep to one tense.

11. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.

To illustrate the sixth commandment, “Omit needless words,” notice how Strunk and White practice what they preach:

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. 

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Writing is never easy, but it is an essential practice for developing and examining your thinking.  As Strunk says, writing paradoxically both drains the mind and supplies it.  It’s always a challenging process, but reading an excellent style guide like The Elements of Style will make things a bit easier.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What analogies are used by Strunk and White to explain the writer’s responsibility to the reader and the reasoning behind being concise when writing?

Challenge - Primary Principle for Powerful Prose

What would you argue is the single most important rule for effective writing?  Look at the rules laid out by Strunk and White, and also research other principles your favorite writers swear by for communicating clearly to a reader.  Select your single most important rule; then, make the case for your rule by explaining it in detail along with showing examples where appropriate.

Sources:

1-Strunk, William.  The Elements of Style. Project Gutenberg, 2011.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - May 31

How did Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichman rationalize his role in the atrocities of the Holocaust?

Subject: Obedience to Authority - Milgram’s Shock Machine

Event:  Trial of Adolf Eichman, 1962

-The Parable of the Two Wolves:

A grandfather is talking to his grandson:  “Inside each of us there is a battle going on between two wolves.  One wolf is evil - full of anger, greed, jealousy, and arrogance.  The second wolf is good - full of love, generosity, honesty, and humility.  

After listening intently to his grandfather’s words, the grandson asks, “Which wolf will win?”

The grandfather replied, “The one you feed.”  

                                            Image by Rain Carnation from Pixabay

On this day in 1962, NAZI SS officer and organizer of Hitler’s final solution Adolf Eichmann was executed after being found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Jerusalem. After fleeing Germany at the end of World War II, Eichmann lived under an assumed identity for fifteen years.  When he was discovered living in Argentina in 1960, Israeli officials apprehended him and transported him to Israel for trial.

One person who was especially captivated by Eichmann’s trial was a young Jewish psychologist named Stanley Milgram.  When he heard Eichmann’s defense, that he was just following orders, Milgram got an idea that would become one of the most famous and most controversial psychological studies in history.

The study that Milgram designed involved 40 male volunteers.  The subjects were told that the study was about the effects of punishment on memory, but what Milgram was really after was to find out how far subjects would go to obey authority.  

Subjects were told that they would be randomly assigned the role of either “teacher“ or “learner.“ In reality, however, every subject became a “teacher,“ and each “learner” was one of Milgram’s assistants.  The first step was for the “teacher” to observe while electrodes were attached to the wrist of each “learner.”  The “teacher” was then taken to a separate room and provided with a microphone and headphones for communication with the “learner.”  After studying a list of word pairs, the “learner” was quizzed by the “teacher.”  If a “learner” gave an incorrect answer, an electric shock was administered.  The “teacher” had a control board with 30 switches in a line.  The first switch began with the smallest shock, 15 volts, and each of the other switches increased the shock slightly.  The maximum shock was 450 volts.  “Teachers” were told that although the electric shocks were painful, they were not dangerous.

In reality the “learner” never received any shock, but the teacher was led to believe that an actual shock was administered:  Each time a switch was pressed a buzzer sounded and a red light illuminated. 

As the voltage of the shocks increased, the “teacher” would hear the “learner” request to end the test, or the “learner” would complain of a heart condition.  At 300-volts, the “teacher” would hear the “learner” banging on the wall, demanding to be released.

In the room with the “teacher” was the supervising experimenter, who wore a long white lab coat.  If the “teacher” ever expressed doubts about continuing the test, the experimenter would respond with one of the following prods:

1. Please continue.

2. The experiment requires you to continue.

3. It is absolutely essential that you continue.

4. You have no other choice but to continue.

The results of Milgram’s study revealed that 65 percent of the “teachers” continued the shocks to the highest level 450 volts while all “teachers’ continued to at least the 300-volt level.

Milgram concluded based on his study that ordinary people are likely to follow the orders of an authority figure, such as the experimenter in the long grey lab coat.  Furthermore, he concluded that this obedience to authority could extend even to the murder of innocent human beings as it had during the Holocaust.

Although many have turned to Milgram’s study to point out the fundamentally flawed nature of humans and their seeming willingness to follow orders blindly, historian Hunter Bregman sees things differently.  In his 2019 book Humandkind:  A Hopeful History, Bregman points out that questionnaires by Milgram’s subject revealed that only 56 percent actually believed that they were actually inflicting pain on the learner.  Furthermore, because the experiment was framed as a learning experiment, subjects felt that they were being helpful and were through their participation making a contribution to science.  This analysis serves to counter those who assert strongly that Milgram’s experiment proves that anyone will blindly follow the orders of a man in a grey lab coat (1).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What were the results of the Milgram experiment?

Challenge - No Good or Noble? : One of the oldest debates in philosophy is about the essential nature of human beings.  For example, philosopher Thomas Hobbs (1588-1679) argued that humans are essentially corrupt and deprived and that without the civilizing forces of government, society would devolve into chaos.  The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) disagreed.  He viewed the essential nature of humans as noble and peaceful.  Do some research on what people have said about the essential nature of humans.  Identify a quotation that you find interesting, write it down, and explain why you like it.

Sources:

1-Bregman, Rutger. Humankind: A Hopeful History.  New York:  Little, Brown and Company 2019.