Specters of History
I’ve been reading a biography of Alexander Hamilton over the last week or so and he never ceases to amaze me. I honestly feel mad sometimes at how ignored Hamilton is compared to Jefferson and his cronies when really Hamilton is who we have to thank for our way of life. The more I read about him, the more I realize that what Hamilton was writing and speaking about in 1776 is still perfectly applicable nearly 250 years later! Just tonight I was reading about how his biggest fear in the weeks and months leading up to the outbreak of hostilities in the Revolutionary War was that a mob mentality would break out and rather than the rule of law the country would fall into anarchy and chaos. I look at the bedlam being caused in Iraq by all the sectarian violence and can’t help but see the direct parallels! As much as Hamilton became a central figure in the formation of the new country, on several occasions he actually tried to turn back revolutionary mobs set on arresting Tory loyalists or confiscating their possessions because he was actually more afraid of the revolution dissolving into chaos than he was about his loyalties being questioned. Iraq does not need a Jefferson who will write pages and pages of beautiful script about the equality of all men and the delights of an agrarian paradise (yada yada yada). Iraq needs a Hamilton who will stand up and with eloquent but direct speech say “Enough! If we stop fighting and realize that we sit on some of the biggest oil reserves anywhere in the world and that all we have to do is stick a pipe in the ground and we will all be instantly rich, we can get over this pointless sectarian violence and revenge killings!”
