The Community
General Category => Matters of Life and The Universe => Topic started by: Zzzptm on October 18, 2018, 11:55:15 AM
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I just read a short essay about the disagreement between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on equality and the American polity.
Jefferson, a slaveholder born into a wealthy family, held the view that because America was so vast, there would be property for all and a sort of egalitarian society would be the natural result.
Adams, a son of a New England farmer, held the view that because property was not limitless and that, indeed even if all men were created equal, they were not all *born* equal - witness the inheritance of Mr. Jefferson, not to mention his slave holdings - wealth would still flow to wealth and that, regardless of society, there was a strong tendency toward inequality and concentration of wealth in a few families.
Adams said to Jefferson, "You are worried about the one. I am worried about the few." Meaning, Jefferson was most opposed to a tyrant while Adams saw a greater threat in an oligarchy/aristocracy.
Fascinating read, I think I'll be diving deeper into this area in the days to come.
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Nice to see one of your founding fathers have such socialist views... ;D
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Nice to see one of your founding fathers have such socialist views... ;D
Well, not entirely... Adams' solution to oligarchy was to have an elected king and a House of Lords to send the powerful to languish into irrevelance.