Skip to main content

Fallacies and Founding Fathers

A photograph of the cover of Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton against a black cloth with white polka dots. On the cover, a portrait of Hamilton with white hair pulled into a braid and a decorative collar is featured prominently. 

I have been in a slight bit of a rut. I don’t have a clear direction as to what I should be doing for my post-camp administrative work, so I end up procrastinating and not getting much work done at all. I have been a bit more of an insomniac than usual, and I feel as though I am perpetually trapped in the first day of a cold. While I have been keeping my daily blog posts up, I often start them later in the evening than I should, which does not help me to get to sleep on time.

In the midst of this productivity nightmare, I have been reading Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton, a man who was tremendously and prolifically productive. The conflict between people deemed urban elites and farmers began in the post-Revolutionary era and continues to the present day. I find it interesting that farmers considered themselves hardworking underdogs even when their jobs involved more slave management than actual farm labor. Thomas Jefferson’s conduct in particular has summoned rage from the small, unforgiving heart of this American. Despite being pedagogically against slavery, Jefferson owned slaves throughout his life. He put himself in significant debt to lead an extravagant lifestyle, which further solidified his dependence on slave labor. Chernow explains that:

Jefferson’s colossal shopping sprees in Paris—he bought two thousand books and sixty-three paintings—betrayed a cavalier disregard for his crushing debts as well as the slaves whose labor serviced them. While Jefferson’s Parisian life seems to contradict his politics, he was embraced by a group of Enlightenment aristocrats who exhibitied the same exquisite contradictions. (Chernow 314)

Despite my frustration with Jefferson’s hypocrisy, extravagant use of money, and slave ownership, I find it oddly comforting to know that the Founding Fathers could be just as terrible as modern-day people.

Hopefully, by the time you hear from me tomorrow, I will be faring better, and I will have read more (potentially infuriating) chapters of Alexander Hamilton.

Best wishes,
Lydia
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reviewing My August 2019 Goals

This is an image of my desk during Fall Semester 2018. On the right side of the photo, there is a vintage Singer sewing machine which, unfortunately, does not work. To the left of the sewing machine, there is a crate books inside. On top of the crate, there is a stack of Rookie Yearbooks with a crocheted jellyfish (wearing glasses) on top of it, and a picture frame containing a print that reads "all the time". To the left of the crate, there are a few more books. In lieu of a proper bookend, I have placed a tarot deck (stored in a black makeup bag) and a book-themed Halloween decoration (featuring book spines with the words "Potions", "Hexes", and "Spells") to keep my books from toppling over. I chose this photograph because, unlike my current desk, this desk looks like it belongs to someone who creates monthly goals. Hello! At the start of this month, I made a list of goals. As September 1 draws near, I am l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Media Round-Up: August 8, 2019

Image of pink, green, and light purple umbrellas suspended in the air between two buildings. Hello! Even with posting on my blog every day this month, I still spend significantly more time consuming content than I do creating it. With that in mind, here is a little roundup of some of the content I have been enjoying in this post-camp-pre-semester portion of my life. TV Show Superstore is a character-driven series about the employees of Cloud 9 (a thinly-concealed stand-in for Walmart). After watching America Ferrera in Ugly Betty and Ben Feldman in Drop Dead Diva , it is interesting to watch them in entirely different roles. Watching this show makes going to Walmart feel like a visit to a fully-immersive Superstore theme park. The between-scene cuts to bizarre antics happening at the store are one of my favorite little touches. Music I have been almost exclusively listening to Heathers . Somehow, I have become thoroughly desensitized to the fact that I am listening to a m...
Post a Comment
Read more

Remembrances and Retail Anxiety

A truly ominous stairwell in one of my school's buildings Bonjour! I got my study abroad card! Thank you to all of the people who signed my card. You are all so amazing and thoughtful! I am having a great time on study abroad, but sometimes I wish that I could be back at Soka with all of you. I feel much more adapted to my life in Paris. This experience has been peppered with worries that I am not taking full advantage of this opportunity. I feel like I should be doing more, seeing more, and spending more. I have had to remind myself that all of the experiences that feel normal now--from taking the metro to climbing up a spiral staircase--were entirely new to me less than two months ago. I am growing and changing, all while gaining a better sense of myself. With that being said, living here has really taken a toll on both me and my physical possessions. The first casualty was a shirt that my mom tie-dyed for me when I was in ninth grade, which tore while I was adjustin...
1 comment
Read more