Why Americans Embraced the Patriot Act: A Philosophical View

Introduction: Self-Preservation and the Patriot Act

Many Americans were persuaded to embrace the USA PATRIOT Act in spite of its tensions with the Constitution because, at their core, Americans had already embraced the philosophy of Rousseau and Adam Smith — philosophies that go hand in hand in American society. The Constitution had been written to protect individuals from the tyranny of a central power, a tyranny that might inhibit their desire to pursue "life, liberty, and happiness." But in the twenty-first century, "life, liberty, and happiness" are virtually guaranteed by an automated, consumerist, self-centered culture in which opiates, entertainment, and education are "freely" administered to an increasingly dependent welfare — or "nanny" — state. In this respect, the Constitution has become a relic that means little, and the Patriot Act is seen as protection against the loss of "life, liberty, and happiness."

What many Americans value above all else is self-preservation, at least in economic, political, and social terms. Enlightenment ideals have lost their gloss, but Rousseau's doctrine and Smith's emphasis on capital still hold their allure. This paper shows how Americans were persuaded to abdicate some of their constitutional rights in favor of Patriot Act protection, and what the unique features of American national identity and the American conception of democracy had to do with the passing of the Patriot Act.

Hamilton, Federalism, and the Priority of Security

Hamilton's Federalist No. 23 puts forward the principles that underlie the passing of the Patriot Act. In promoting a strong federal government, Hamilton states its purpose is the establishment of "the common defense of the members — the preservation of the public peace" (Hamilton). The emphasis on "preservation" is important because it highlights the ultimate priority of many citizens, then as now: selfhood. Liberty, equality, and fraternity may have been revolutionary ideals, but in the end each still demands a certain degree of restraint — of self-renunciation.

Rousseau, Smith, and the Erosion of Old-World Values

Rousseau's principle of philosophical self-idolatry is at odds with any doctrine of restraint. "Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains" (Rousseau 14), even within a revolutionary order in which that restraint appears minimal. In the Age of Enlightenment, society still held enough of the old-world values that advocated self-preservation through self-restraint, despite new ideologies that espoused economic, social, and political stability through the pursuit of wealth (Smith) and pleasure (Rousseau). Those old-world values, expressed through cultural codes, held the passions in check: capitalism, as promoted by Adam Smith, would not end badly so long as people still exercised a modicum of virtue, compassion, and respect. The Romantic pursuit of pleasure and self-fulfillment would not end badly so long as society maintained a degree of decency.

The old-world values have since eroded, and that degree of decency has degenerated. In their place, insouciance — supported by the relativistic dogmas of modern science and philosophy — has become embedded in a culture of consumerism. "America is a business," as the film Killing Them Softly puts it (Dominik), and a fascistic society will protect its business interests at the expense of individual rights, which matter to few people so long as they can remain insouciantly unaware of themselves and the world around them.

The Constitution and the Founding Fathers who penned it served their purpose. The conclusion of the Civil War marked the effective termination of that purpose. The philosophy behind the abandonment of the Constitution can be summed up in Rousseau's own words: "Children remain attached to the father only so long as they need him for their preservation. As soon as this need ceases, the natural bond is dissolved" (14). Americans' need for constitutional rights diminished when the States became fully Hamiltonian — that is, when the federal government granted "due process" to all through the Fourteenth Amendment, thereby stripping individual states of the right to conduct their own affairs and applying the principles of relativity to the black-and-white logic of the Constitution. The law had served its purpose of self-preservation; in the new world order emerging with industrialization, self-preservation required a new law, one supplied by the Supreme Court, businessmen, and bureaucrats. Fascism was not merely a belief that blossomed in Italy — it was one that manifested itself across the industrialized world.