I get It. We’re celebrating the American Revolution and our independence from England today.  But the idea of independence has an odd history in the U.S.A. We treat the concept as a cultural icon, we fight “for freedom” around the world – or so we claim. We give little thought as to the real functions of any particular war of choice we allow our leaders to start. We live in a bubble of self-congratulatory national glorification. We excuse our elite’s attempts to dominate the world for their profit and power — and our debt. We give a blank check to the military-industrial-congressional complex President Eisenhower so emphatically warned us against in his farewell address.

Independence and Human Rights

So, you could say we deceive ourselves about just how “independent” each one of us really is. We hold up our ideals of personal freedom, free markets, free trade, free press, and freedom from government intrusion in our lives. Yet we willingly submit to the violation of our civil and human rights by corporate and government agencies. We tolerate mass surveillance of every citizen who has a phone, credit card, or computer by the NSA and its corporate collaborators.

We buy the argument that we should not be upset “if you have nothing to hide.” We ignore the fact that “big data” allows mass manipulation. We tolerate congressional oversight committees that allow spy-agency officials to lie to them. We accept police military assaults on homes — modeled on our night raids in Iraq — on “suspicion” that there might be some marijuana present. We endure regulators giving free reign for Big Banks to speculate with borrowers’ money and bring down the economy with impunity. We put up with local homeowners associations micromanaging property owners’ private lives over illusions about ‘property values.’ We permit the oppression of others. We value the “right to be left alone.” But we tolerate unwarranted “stop and frisk” harassment of young men of color and we ignore their mass incarceration.

Interdependence is Real

The contradictions in our misapplication of the principle of independence seem unbounded. But let’s look at what “independence” really means and how it relates to “interdependence.” I think that may give us a clue about why we are getting ourselves into so much trouble, both at home and around the world. In our relations with each other and the planet itself, we assert our rights to plunder everything in sight. But in a finite world where we are already upsetting the ecological balance to where survival is dubious, that just does not work any more.

In practical terms, our independence is an illusion. It doesn’t fit reality. In a more modest framing independence is very important. But what’s the difference? The reality of human “interdependence” needs to be considered. We have been living on the basis of an illusion of total independence ever since the dawn of the industrial revolution. It worked fairly well for the entrepreneurs as long as there was room for expansion. The industrializing nations did invade, occupy, and exterminate native populations all over the world.  They destroyed the independence of others wherever they found it in order to expand their own. That’s how those opportunities were kept available for the “independent entrepreneurs” of Empire.

Conquistadors, robber barons, and pioneers, as well as the likes of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Hank Paulson, and Donald Trump have been the prime beneficiaries of independence. Yes, an odd assortment. All of these folks were/are innovative — and often ruthless. One person’s entrepreneur is another person’s oppressor. So called independent actions do not happen in a vacuum. Pure independence would be approximated only by a hermit.

But we must not forget social-economic power; that is what most entrepreneurs seek and gain, usually by using/exploiting others. Our idealism implies that independence is for all. Our political elites pretend to “export democracy” to the world. We equate independence with economic growth, the dominant value of American culture. But that has been achieved by the few dominating the many.

Moral Economy

Underlying it all is the fact that all human life is grounded in one way or another in inter-dependence. The very richest of the 1% are clearly dependent upon the willingness of others – such as banking regulators – to tolerate their “independent” financial speculations. In a moral economy, risk would fall on the risk taker, not the rest of us; only then could he be truly independent.

But a truly moral economy would be based in equitable interdependence, where risk and reward would be shared by all who are interdependent in their relationships. That is not about to happen in the corporate state that has evolved with over-indulgence in an illusion of independence. The most powerful elites control the most powerful institutions that now constrict the independence of “the 99%.” They squeeze the earnings of employees. They conduct mass surveillance to “manage” the population. They impose various restrictions on political participation to protect their power. To attain true independence we need to establish a morality of equitable interdependence — we have our work cut out. Happy 4th!