Iqra’i

I’ve been watching the HBO miniseries on John Adams, and aside from the fact that they have yet to burst into song, I like it. (Also, George Washington is played by my erstwhile next-door neighbor, David Morse.)

Two things strike me about the show. The first is the regionalism: the real sentiment that somewhere else in America is not “my country” seems to be limited to Southerners. Still, though I know that the colonies were culturally distinct, that the difference between a Virginian and a New Englander far more than geographic, it hardly seems an issue today. Has the federal vision of America, where states maintained their own identities like European countries under the EU, failed? Or is this just another example of my East Coast cultural hegemony speaking?

The other point, which I think is more interesting, is the shows treatment of the reasons for American independence. Some of the delegates talk about natural rights, with Lockean language about self-rule and self-determination, but some follow the example of John Dickinson, of minuet fame:

“I have looked for our rights in the laws of nature and can find them only in the laws of political society. I have looked for our rights in the constitution of the English government and found them there.”

This fundamental tension — “the British Crown is abusing our natural rights as men” vs. “the British Crown is incompetent in preserving our traditional rights as Englishmen” — is incredibly important to our understanding of the Revolutionary War. I know which side I would have fallen on had I been there, and I’m pleased as punch to see a mainstream representation of this debate among the Founders.

I am a little frustrated to see the “Join or Die” graphic used so much in the show; it really wasn’t the flag of the colonies. Then again, HBO has a bad habit of using the shows’ own logos in the show. (Cf. Carnivàle.)

This may be a better representation of the Revolutionary War, too.