Untruths Why the Conventional Wisdom Is Almost Always Wrong

THE STEADFAST (AND OFTEN SILLY) AMERICAN CHARACTER Every so often an item bounces across the Associated Press wire that reminds you how steadfast the American national character is. Here's one (suitably abbreviated) that arrived a few weeks ago: ROCHESTER, N.H.An 88-year-old woman made good on her pledge not to pay "one red cent" of a court judgment against her for taking a neighbor boy's kickball away. Rochester District Court Judge Franklin Jones accepted a check for $30.20 from someone who sympathized with Reba Martineau rather than pressing Martineau herself to pay. Jones could have jailed her for contempt. Martineau refused to return nine-year-old Gary Campbell's kickball after it went into the yard of her home in a mobile home park in September. She claimed she and other elderly residents had been treated disrespectfully by neighborhood children. The boy's parents filed a small claims lawsuit to get the ball or make her pay for it. After deducting its fees, the court will give the parents, Martha and Wayne Campbell, $9.99 for a new ball. Wayne Campbell said they went to court to show their son the law cannot be broken. Now, a lot of folks think the American national character is going to pot. Time magazine recently complained in a cover story that we have become a nation of "crybabies." We sue too often. We see ourselves as the "victims" of someone or something else. The editors at Time ought to brush up on their history. What they (and many others) deplore is simply the good old American character adapting to modern times. We may not like what we see, butas the kickball saga will showit's the way we've always been. Americans have long lived by two propositions. Proposition Number One: You're no better than I am. Equality is our religion, as Alexis de Tocqueville noted. We may not be equal in income, wealth, or talent. But we categorically reject the idea that people are automatically better or worse merely because they belong to some class or group. Tocqueville found that, unlike Europe, there was no natural aristocracy in America. Everyone is supposed to have the same opportunity. This was our national ideal (and mythology) in the 1830s. It remains so today. Proposition Number Two: You can't do that to me. Since at least the Boston Tea Party, Americans have resented arbitrary authority. We have the Bill of Rights to define the limits of outside control over individual conduct. We react strongly against what we regard as intrusions into our lives, whether by government, bureaucracy (private and public), or other groups and individuals. Liberals defend "rights." Conservatives exalt "freedom." They're really talking about the same thing. Let it be said that these have beenand aresources of American greatness. They nurture love of liberty, a respect for the individual, and a healthy sensitivity to the abuse of power. But these same impulses can get out of hand. Unless somehow tempered, they can lead to absurd and wasteful conflict. In a more traditional society, Reba Martineau would have received some deference merely because she is 88. Not in America. The old aren't superior simply because they're old. We won't have an aristocracy of age or anything else. After "Mama" and "dog," American children first learn to say: "It's not fair." They think they're as good as anyone else, and they're encouraged to believe it. Gary Campbell's parents went to court to show him that, before the law, he was equal to anyone. What the quarrel was about was freedom and rights. Reba Martineau&Samuelson, Robert J. is the author of 'Untruths Why the Conventional Wisdom Is Almost Always Wrong', published 2001 under ISBN 9780812991642 and ISBN 0812991648.