The average life expectancy of an American man in 1780 was about 45 years old. The average height was 5'6" to 5'7". In the ensuing 240 years those averages have jumped 34 years and 3 inches respectively. In that same amount of time Americans have gotten heavier, become more literate, generally better educated, and also somehow more ignorant, depending on what medical or philosophical journals you read.
So why does it seem so difficult to accept that social and moral sensitivity can evolve in the same time frame? Why are so many people so dead set on holding the people of a far distant era up to the standards of modern day?
This is on my mind because I finally watched Hamilton this weekend. I have never seen the show and absolutely loved it. But after watching it I was curious about the whole fact/fiction quotient. How much of the story was real and how much embellished? In doing a little light research I started coming across a number of articles claiming that Hamilton was a good show when it came out in 2014 but no longer belonged in the modern world of Trump, the alt right, and Black Lives Matter.
So in just 6 years the social and moral compass of our nation has swung so violently that a musical about the founding fathers of our nation that gained notoriety for swapping the races of the men and women being portrayed and turning 1780s America in to a melting pot long before it actually was one is suddenly considered insensitive because it doesn't spend enough time pointing out that almost every major character was a slave owner?
Look, this is a difficult and delicate matter and almost certainly one that I am in no way qualified to comment on even though its clearly been on my mind a lot. Fortunately this is just my blog that will be read by 8 or 9 people at best and maybe typing it all out will help me work through my own feelings on all this.
First of all, I feel I need to point out that I 100% support Black Lives Matter. I am raising 3 daughters and have fought hard with my own upbringing and family background to erase the threat of racism and sexism within my own thoughts. I personally consider myself very liberal and open minded and am not aware of anyone who would challenge me on that. Given that I am nearly 42, white, straight, and was raised in a small, all-white town in the 80s I feel i have even made great personal strides in the acceptance and understanding of the LGBTQ community even though I will readily admit that I occasionally struggle with what feels like a surprising number of definitions and labels to describe orientation and sexuality. But that's a rant for another time and I will own any heat sent my way and try to better myself for it.
However, where I start to feel real discomfort is when we in 2020 try to assign our morals and understandings to the men and women of 1780. It took us 240 years to get to where we are. I would argue that it should not have taken this long and that, in fact, we should perhaps even be more enlightened than we are now. But the fact is this is where we are and this is how long it took us to get here. So how can we look back at a group of people who fought for religious freedom, fought against tyranny and worked themselves to death to create from scratch a system that could be constantly updated and amended to allow freedom and equality to as many people as possible and judge them for being products of their time? Even then there were rumblings against slavery and misogyny. The first seeds had already been planted. These were, by and large, brilliant and brave men literally laying down their lives to simply start a spark that we are still working to fan. Was it right for them to own human beings? Fuck no! Were many of them filthy horny cheaters? Fuck yes!
But I truly believe that condemning them out of hand and ignoring their contributions while focusing on their weaknesses is the kind of thing that will keep us as a society spinning our wheels in the moral and ethical quagmire we currently find ourselves. Hell it only took us 6 years to turn on Lin Manuel Miranda and all he did was write a play.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that we can acknowledge the failings and limitations of our ancestors and forefathers without erasing their contributions and victories. Mankind is a work in progress. We always will be. Don't celebrate men like Jefferson and Washington because they owned slaves. Celebrate them for taking the first steps. Celebrate the fact that we don't live in that society anymore because they helped develop a system that allowed us to produce people who put a stop to it. And don't vilify a celebrity because he tried to write an inclusive and race-sensitive musical about a handful of old white dudes but didn't dedicate a song to how they all owned slaves. Appreciate the fact that he may have had some small hand in moving the conversation along and furthering our enlightenment. We've always been a nation of baby steps it seems. I wish it weren't so. Still, we have come a very long way in 240 years. We can go further if we stop looking back so angrily.