Depending on whom you ask, the fireworks have already happened, but for the average observer, July 4th has yet to come. Hamburgers, gunpowder, and as many “we’re the best” moments as we can muster await us come Tuesday. The celebration of our founding moment is our greatest tradition. Two hundred and forty-seven years ago, 56 men put their name to paper in defense of their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor, and in doing so charted a course unparalleled in the course of human events. 

These men did not work alone, however. Their actions drew upon a civilizational tradition that began thousands of years before any Englishman had set foot in the New World. The events that have followed since the Founding are part of a symphony that has played out over thousands of years on the world’s largest stage. Remembering the component parts of this grand orchestra is key to ensuring that our song does not come to its end. 

In his 1968 essay “Western Civilization: the Problem of Political Freedom,” Frank Meyer articulated a beautiful sentiment that, in my opinion, captures the composition of our majestic symphony quite nicely. Short in length and broad in scope, Meyer’s treatise on the roots of Western civilization finds the West’s genesis in ancient Greece and Israel. In contrast to the “cosmological civilizations” that preceded them, the ancient Greeks and Israelites grasped a truth about the human condition that had eluded their predecessors. In Meyer’s estimation — one I am inclined to believe — this truth was the recognition that “man has always been, as Aristotle long ago saw, part animal, part spiritual.” The results of this understanding were revolutionary: 

It shattered the age-old identity of the historic and the cosmic. It burst asunder the unity of what ought to be and what is. It faced individual men for the first time with the necessity of deep-going moral choice. In a word, it destroyed the unity of what is done by human beings and what they should do to reach the heights their nature opens to them. 

In short, it allowed man to see that he is in this world but not of it, and in realizing this, he is faced with the responsibility of choosing virtue for himself. 

Further along in the essay, Meyer addresses the problem of Utopian thinking. As flawed creatures, we are, when faced with this cosmic truth, pulled toward establishing the transcendence we see here on earth. Our cosmological roots gnaw at us. This deep desire for heaven on earth draws a thread through the history of Western civilization in Europe, from the Holy Roman Empire up to the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. Living with the knowledge that man is torn between the material and the transcendent is no small ask; establishing a government that recognizes that tension is near impossible. 

Here, finally, America makes her first appearance. I will leave it to Meyer to describe our role: 

Thus the stage was set, when the American experience reached its critical point and the United States was constituted. The men who settled these shores and established an extension of Western civilization here carried with them the heritage of the centuries of Western development. With it they carried the contradiction between the driving demands of the Western ethos and a political system inconsonant with that ethos. In the open lands of this continent, removed from the overhanging presence of cosmological remains, they established a constitution that for the first time in human history was constructed to guarantee the sanctity of the person and his freedom. But they brought with them also the human condition, which is tempted always by the false visions of Utopianism.

The establishment of a free constitution is the great achievement of America in the drama of Western civilization. The struggle for its preservation against Utopian corrosion is the continuing history of the United States since its foundation, a struggle which continues to this day and which is not yet decided.

America’s greatness derives from this foundational truth. She stands alone in the annals of history, born of an idea and forged by a people who embraced this eternal mission with open arms. For 247 years it has made us great. The struggle to maintain what makes us great continues. 

I wouldn’t ask and don’t expect you to spend your July 4th philosophizing about the nature of America. That would be too dull. But as you enjoy the fireworks that celebrate our birthday, I hope you take a moment to reflect on the majesty of our grand symphony. It may seem discordant today, but this symphony has not yet played its final tune. With some fine-tuning and a bit of luck, it never will. 

Happy 4th of July.