Hanson on Citizenship

liberal biasTerry Scambray – Defining terms is always a good place to begin a conversation and Victor Davis Hanson’s The Dying Citizen. How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America (Basic Books) weaves a rich definition of citizenship into his discussion of the current threats to this profoundly Western idea.

The idea of citizenship originated in the 5th-century B.C. Greek city states, the concept being nourished by the likes of one Alkidamas, who wrote, “Nature has made no man a slave.”  This was in profound contrast to the rigid stratification that most all societies then and most non-western societies still maintain: top-down social systems wherein certain privileges are awarded to the favored few by regnant earthly powers as opposed to the God-given, non-negotiable, inherent rights citizens in the West enjoy. Continue reading

Number Of Americans Renouncing US Citizenship Reaches All-Time High. Again.

citizenshipSimon Black – Under the republic of Ancient Rome, to be a citizen was an unparalleled status that people throughout the entire known world aspired to achieve.

Roman citizens were granted very special privileges and benefits. The right to vote. The right to stand for election. The right to engage in commerce.

They had the right to settle disputes in an impartial court.

Roman citizens were even exempt from the death penalty, except in cases of treason, where they were still afforded a fair trial.

But citizenship is ultimately a contract. And like all contracts, citizenship has both costs and benefits.

It also changes over time as the stronger party sets aside or ‘reinterprets’ parts of the contract.

As the Roman republic descended into imperial chaos, the costs of citizenship began to outweigh the benefits… many of which disappeared altogether.

Elections became obviously rigged, and bribery was rampant. So the right to vote wasn’t exactly much of a benefit.

Cicero tells us in 54 BC that so much money had been borrowed to rig Roman elections that interest rates had temporarily doubled.

By the 4th century, Romans were being executed simply for violating Emperor Diocletian’s infamous wage and price controls.

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