How subtle and interesting is it that our founding document starts out by declaring the ultimate purpose of our Constitution in a way that aims us towards an unreachable goal? Perfection of anything is impossible, and who can define perfection anyways? A ‘perfect Union’ would be a different thing for different people. But the Founders were wise enough to purposefully not promise perfection, but only aim us towards it.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. (emphasis mine)
This particular part of the preamble, a part of the Constitution evolved from early church covenants, highlights an important world view held by the Founding Fathers. Thomas Sowell, famed economist and one of my intellectual heroes named this world view ‘The Constrained Vision’.
A ‘Constrained’ world view assumes no perfect end state. There is no utopia (Greek world for ‘no place’.) It assumes that human nature is essentially permanent and government serves to guide the possibilities of the human endeavor by reigning in that nature. It provides a framework for the limits of our abilities.
Essentially, the Founders believed that by building a framework for a nation, whatever came of us within that framework would be the best possible outcome. There was no pie in the sky goal of a state of perfection. Maintaining the principled foundations was all we could do.
The opposite of that vision is ‘The Unconstrained Vision’. This type of world view does not see humanity as being constrained by any underlying reality or human nature. Man is capable of anything he sets his mind to. Therefore, if we can imagine perfection, we can reach perfection. Or in this case, ‘a perfect Union’.
Coincidentally, these two visions played out in real time.
Shortly after the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Revolutionary war was fought, the French had their own Revolution. Although, there’s was founded on somewhat different principles and views of the capabilities of mankind. Raising man’s ability to reason to the level of a God - they actually created a church of reason and a new calendar - they fully believed that if we reasoned hard enough, we could essentially form a state of perfection. There was a subsequent bloodbath, the guillotine was invented, and a new dictator named Napoleon eventually came into power.
It didn’t go so well.
But that didn’t happen in the aforementioned nation built on the concept of the Constrained Vision that accepts trade-offs. No perfect union for an imperfectible people. Just a direction to aim towards. That’s good enough.