Frozen Transparency

Today is the day Americans celebrate their independence from Britain. The choice of date is a little odd, seeing as the actual resolution declaring independence (the Lee Resolution) was passed on July 2nd, and the Declaration of Independence was signed on August 2nd. (Although in all fairness, the declaration was adopted on July 4th).

That document now has absolutely no legal bearing. Some people like to cite sections of it as rails against our government, ignorant of this fact. But it still has importance as a document in history—much as the Mayflower Compact does—and is worth studying, especially in our history. Its opening is one of excellence:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

What I find most interesting about the document, though, is that while it has no legal bearing, it in a sense proclaims the basic political philosophy of the country:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

But furthermore:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

History classes (rightly) talk very much about how revolutionary the document was—no pun intended. And philosophically speaking, the very idea that a group of guys would openly declare this was astounding—although not as surprising as some people like to think, seeing as many of the ideas of the document had been floated around Europe for the century prior.

But a lot of people today seem to miss the fundamental philosophical basis for this proclamation. If you go back and read that very famous line:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

You’ll notice something very odd. It says “they are endowed by their Creator” (emphasis added). Capitalized. As in, God. That Judeo-Christian “I Am” God. Alpha and Omega. Creator of heaven and Earth.

Whoa, hold on. What about separation of church and state (a phrase that never actually occurs in the Constitution, no matter how much some people claim it does)? What about tolerance and religious understanding? Hey wait a moment, what about atheists, Buddhists, Hindu, Aztec, or any of the other five sixths of the world?

Yeah, about that…

See, when you look at the philosophical underpinning of the American Revolution, it comes down to the radical idea that when God created humans, He endowed them with something more than just a body, but a soul with dignity. Because God created all humans like this, all humans should be treated equally by law. That they have inalienable rights. None of this “king is more important than peasant” bullshit.

It all flows from a Judeo-Christian understanding of the world. I can think of no other religion that has this basic philosophical notion. It is explicitly stated in Galations:

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

There is, of course, quibbling to be done here on several accounts. Judiasm and Christianity have different views of sin and the rights of humans, for instance. Plus, there is that fun topic of slavery. And likely a host of other things.

Yet, as I consider what I know of the world’s religions (which is admittedly limited), I cannot think of another religion that has such a core tenet in its faith: that all men are endowed by a creator with certain inescapable rights, that the abrogation of such is sufficient to overthrow a government. It’s possible that it’s out there, and I would be interested to learn of other religions that have this ideal.

Even if there are, it’s still worth noting that the entire philosophical basis for the American Revolution (and subsequently the American governments) is very Christian in nature and ideal. It’s difficult to escape the religious underpinnings of our country, and it saddens me when people deny the obvious so vehemently. So I shall finish with the last of the Declaration, in which they once again cite a religious influence:

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

And the torrents of liberty should flow like a mighty river, engulfing all in their wake.

For however much Valentine’s Day is a manufactured holiday, I must say that the Japanese have it much worse. Today is, as it turns out, White Day. The basic idea is that today is the day you reciprocate all of the gifts of chocolate and flowers that you received one month previous, and it doesn’t hurt if it happens to be much more expensive. It’s very much an example of a manufactured holiday because it’s started only within the last fifty years and was first popularized explicitly to sell chocolate.

Mind, I think that having a holiday to celebrate love and sex is not a bad thing. I have some reservations about the level of merchandising—that is, the claim that the only way to appropriately show love is a bouquet of roses along with chocolates and probably jewelry—but the concept behind the holiday doesn’t bother me. This is also why I don’t rail all too much against Christmas, just the merchandising aspects of it. White Day, however, is clearly meant to feed into the immense popularity that Valentine’s Day gets. And when you factor in the Japanese concept of giri choco (that is, chocolate that is given as an obligatory gift to co-workers, casual acquaintances, platonic friends and so on), the cost of reciprocating on White Day gets relatively high. I think it’s a serious question whether or not spending money is the best way of showing someone you love them.

In either case, I’m not that sure if chocolate goes on sale in Japan on March 15^th the same way it goes on sale on February 15^th in America.

There are also some who are trying to turn March 14^th into Steak And Blowjob Day here in America. This is done primarily as a response to the idea that Valentine’s Day is done for women. Admittedly, most flowers and chocolate are bought for women, but this new holiday operates under the assumption that men don’t care very much for romance, or the celebration therein. I don’t particularly think this holiday will catch on, if for no other reason than having a fairly obscene (in the legal sense) name.

It is worth noting that it is also Albert Einstein’s birthday. He was born 129 years ago today (give or take leapdays).

Personally, though, I prefer celebrating today as pi day. Its date, when written in either bass-ackwards American notation (Month/Day/Year) or in ISO 8601 (the universal standard) comes out to be “03-14″, which happen to be the first three digits (if you ignore the 0) of pi. This number only happens to be one of the most important numbers in the universe, so I think it’s a day worth celebrating. As a counterpoint to the holiday that celebrates love, a holiday that celebrates mathematics and all the achievements it’s given us.

It’s also a homophonic excuse to eat pie.

While I was investigating my options for Valentine’s Day (I have tended in the past to get things for my female friends as tokens of friendship), this year I looked at online flower delivery. After all, flowers are a typical gift for the day (not necessarily roses; there are flowers out there that mean friendship), and it would be difficult and awkward to get flowers to all the women I know around me—and there are quite a few who live a distance away.

I found it somewhat interesting when looking at delivery dates (which mean more than shipping dates): setting a delivery date for either the 13^th or the 14^th gave the order a fairly obscene shipping charge. But the 15^th? Same as all normal weekday shipping.

In the future, I may very well suggest celebrating Valentine’s Day the day after the fact. That way, picking up some flowers and chocolate will be tremendously cheaper, since it all goes on sale—and it can still possibly maintain the romantic aspect. And since I don’t watch TV, I don’t have advertisers yelling at me to do any different. Everyone wins.

In either case, today happens to be the day after Valentine’s Day. I hope all of you had a nice and pleasant evening to celebrate love and sex, even if you’re someone currently lacking either. And if you didn’t get any special love or sex—or even if you did—look on the bright side: chocolate is now on sale, so you can treat yourself.

I know that not everyone uses the Gregorian calendar, and I also know that the choice of when a year ends is a completely arbitrary choice. In either case, I would still like to wish you a Happy New Year. As would be said in Fincaiyan, my conlang:

ensel teirei dan ni lontevoi taru

Which roughly translates to:

May you be guided in the coming year

For those wishing to know how to pronounce it, vowels are roughly as in Spanish, consonants as in English, except for “t”, which is usually rendered like the English “th” in “teeth”, and “d”, which is usually rendered like the English “th” in “that”. Accents are all on the last syllable of the word, except for “taru”, in which it is on the first. At some point, I will try to put up a guide to Fincaiyan pronunciation.

Regardless, have a Happy New Year.

You know, for how much we are theoretically not a Judeo-Christian nation, and how much Christmas is pushed out of the public sphere, there are an awful lot of people celebrating today. People packed the stores (especially toy and grocery) to prepare for a normal, everyday Tuesday. Or perhaps it was the Winter Solstice (from our perspective) that happened three days prior.

No matter.

Merry Christmas to all of you. And to those of you who do not celebrate Christmas (either the secular or the religious observance), then I wish you a calm and wonderful day. Perhaps one day there shall be peace across the Earth.