I think one of the more entertaining productions of the last decade or so has to be “Downton Abbey,” which follows the lives and fortunes of a fictitious British Earl, his family and their household over a decade and a half, from just prior to World War I to shortly before the Great Depression. The show was superbly written, directed and acted.
The Earl, as with many of the real nobility of England, and elsewhere around Europe – and the world – can trace his lineage back centuries.
There are no earls in the US.
One of the fascinating things about the United States is that there are just a few families – Adams, Dupont, Astor come to mind – that have remained prominent in the US for more than 3 or 4 generations. Can anyone even name George Washington’s closest surviving relative?
Why is that significant?
Because we’re in the middle of a mud-slinging campaign to smear nearly everything in US history, and in doing so we are overlooking the truth.
Consider: before the 20th century life was very hard everywhere, with the possible exception of the very top layer of society. In the 1800s world-wide, 43% of children did not live to age 5. Today, that number is 3.9%, and in most of the world that number is less than 2% (0.66% in the US).
Before the late 1800s roughly one woman died in childbirth out of every 100 births. Today that number is below 1 death in every 10,000 births.
In 1850 average life expectancy was roughly 40, today it is nearing 80. Prior to the 1800s women could expect to live shorter lives than men – as many as 9 years less in the Middle Ages – but caught up to men between 1850 and 1900, and today live on average nearly 5 more years than men.
What about retirements? Trick question: prior to the 20th century no one retired. Ever. And unless you were the very top crust you didn’t have medical care.
You also didn’t have air conditioning. And you didn’t have central heating. Or clean water. Or safe food.
Prior to the 1600s, if you were in an army or navy you could reasonably expect to be a slave if you lost a battle. In fact, throughout all of recorded history, up until the late 1600s, slavery was everywhere. And it continued under other names for several centuries more.
Ask the Irish what life was like under British rule in the early 1800s. Or for that matter, the Australians.
In fact, life before 1800 was pretty miserable for just about everyone, except for that very top crust. And here’s the trick, you were either in that top crust or you weren’t. On rare occasions someone might work his way in. And occasionally a family was ‘tossed out,’ usually with the loss of a head or two, depending on the country.
Did some people have it worse than others? Yes, indeed. But the spectrum for the vast bulk of humanity ran from horrible to truly horrible and soul-sucking. For millennia life was often sheer misery for nearly everyone.
Then it changed.
What changed it was the American Revolution: limited government, the recognition of individual rights having precedent over government, and the idea of merit and equal justice defining your place in society rather than birth. The word of note here is “revolution.”
These concepts are truly revolutionary. And if the American Revolution had not succeeded, it is doubtful these ideas – and the concomitant reality – would have survived, never mind come to dominate political discourse in a mere two centuries.
Today, families rise and fall. Fortunes are made and lost. And children are born and grow up with little fear of infant mortality. Women go through childbirth without fear.
We work 5 days a week, we retire when we choose, we go where we choose, and on and on and on. We are all equally governed by the same laws.
There are no earls, no dukes, no lords.
And no one knows what happened to the Jefferson family or the Monroe family, or the Madison family. But let’s not forget that no matter how much some may want to twist history around and stand it on its head, we really need to thank the founding members of those clans: they are the ones who made this possible.
Copyright 2019 Arrias
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