WWTJD

Thomas Jefferson – 1743 – 1826

I’ve been thinking about Thomas Jefferson of late. A lot. I know it has something to do with some Christmas gifts I received that were books on Jefferson and his unique way of thinking…and that is what got me here today.

I am currently reading Repairing Jefferson’s America by Clay Jenkinson – the preeminent Jefferson scholar of our time, possibly ever. He does more than just study Jefferson in an academic sense and translate that into a few books, he becomes Jefferson. Mr. Jenkinson started the Thomas Jefferson Hour years ago; an excellent (and my favorite) weekly NPR program. I highly encourage you to check out any episode, but especially those where he portrays Jefferson.

Back on point – I am reading Repairing Jefferson’s America and I had no idea how Jeffersonian much of my belief structure actually was. It goes beyond politics; it is a way of engaging in my life and my citizenship. Many of the things I strive to do/be as I attempt to grow as a person are ‘Jeffersonian’ in nature…and I think more people would like to be that way if they only knew.

I’m still in the early reading, but the most important takeaway I’ve gleaned so far is Mr. Jenkinson’s distillation of Jefferson on citizenship are these two axioms (among others):

a) Jefferson would be ‘appalled by our propensity to define an American as a consumer rather than a civic individual.’

b) ‘To behave passively towards government is to abdicate the idea of self-government and to give tacit approval to the independent sovereignty and validity of government.‘

In the former, we see it all the time – from Geroge W. Bush saying to the best way to be an American after 9/11 was to go to Disney World to coverage of consumer spending, GDP, and Black Friday sales numbers.

In the latter, I don’t even need to cite anything as you know its true. Most Americans do not either have the time, interest, or civic education to do anything other than be passive ‘citizens’. and thus their every day of non-participation is the ever-so-slight de facto erosion of The People’s sovereignty and what is woefully government for the sake of itself. We see it when politicians gleefully gerrymander up their state – Republican and Democrat both. We see it in Super PACS, dark pools of money, and the woeful holding in Citizens United. I personally can’t escape it when my employer wants to go ever deeper into the military-industry complex because there’s a lot of money there. I think about it every time ‘lobbyist’ enters into the conversation or where I know that the only real constituents of politicians are the rich and the corporations they own/oversee.

Juvenal said it best: Panem et Circensus – feed them bread and circuses. If the masses are too distracted by the Kardashians and the NFL and satiated by the free COVID money and unemployment assistance Uncle Sam hands out, they’ll be content to slip ever deeper into ignorant bondage while clinging to some false concept of freedom. There is no enlightenment, self-actualization, or civic-mindedness in that equation.

a more ‘modern’ take that is part of the same observation is this very apt commentary by Marilyn Manson in Bowling for Columbine where he speaks about his portrayal of being responsible for the infamous school shooting tragedy. While the references are dated, the message still applies and you can replace bombs over Kosovo with either variety of coverage of the Jan 6th insurrection. Fear and Consumption are more alive and well today than when Manson said it 20 years ago. Fear and Consumption drive us away from my two Jeffersonian axioms on citizenship.

Maybe that is why the two axioms I highlighted above resonate so well with me – Juvenal’s and Manson’s comments fits into Jeffersonianism quite well and I think about them and what they mean for our nation far, far too often. In civic and political life, I have begun to ask myself: What Would Thomas Jefferson Do – and I try to emulate him where I can.

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-G.S.