This video explains how the British colonization of America, specifically Virginia and Massachusetts, laid the foundation for American individualism, which in turn propelled the United States to become a global superpower. It discusses the development of capitalism, representative democracy, and religious freedom as key institutions stemming from this colonization and contrasts them with extractive and authoritarian systems. The video also touches upon the regional economic differences between the North and South that ultimately led to the Civil War.
It is impossible to understand the United States and why it will become so successful and also to understand American culture, temperament and Americans themselves without understanding colonization of Virginia and Massachusetts because it's from those two colonies that we get the beginning of American individualism. Now, it's not like the United States invented individualism. England was the most individualistic and inclusive of the advanced technologically advanced societies. So England already had it and then it came to the United States and it was exaggerated and that will propel the United States to become the world superpower because when you take individualism and you apply it to society, you get in the economic realm capitalism, political realm, representative democracy. And in terms of social systems, which religion is the primary one, religious freedom, the three things that are correlated with a nation that is growing, stable, and going to excel in every single one of the colonies. Virginia was the first one. But in every single one of the colonies, British elite tried to establish economic and political institutions that were extractive in which a small group of ini individuals were going to restrict the rights of the majority of the population. like in Virginia when they try to exploit the labor and it will fail over and over and over again because the United States is just too geographically large. If they were being enslaved in Virginia, British colonists could then just go to a different colony. They could run away. So because they couldn't exploit the labor of the British colonists, they had to turn to incentives and the incentive system is what will lead to capitalism and representative democracy. Now, both capitalism and representative democracy have their flaws. They're not perfect, but they are still the best institutions, economic and political institutions that we know of. Now, capitalism, it's very complicated and it doesn't mean an absence of government like government does nothing. uh capitalism in a for a capitalist system to work you have to have a functional fair government in which laws are applied evenly and equally and there's protection of property. So don't ever say that capitalism means no government because that's not right. Capitalism represent representative democracy though they are the keys to a society that's going to continue to grow and be stable in the modern era and you can see examples of this all over the world. Uh, there are for example the United States and Mexico. Not saying the United States is better, but there are uh it is more economically advanced. It has less crime. It has a higher um obviously much higher GDP. But individual by individual uh Americans are doing economically better and are more secure. There's no better example of this than in the Koreas. North and South Korea, same people, same culture, same background, but after World War II, they were divided. And in the North, they will have a government. People call it socialist, but it's not socialist. It's it's authoritarian. It's ruled by one ridiculous little Korean man. It's ruled by one family. It's a dictatorship. So the anyone that says is a socialist or communist that they say they're the people's republic of North Korea, but anytime a government is going to oppress the people, they always call it the people's the people's republic of China and the people's republic of North Korea. And then they oppress the hell out of them. And that's what happened in North Korea. South Korea will develop a economic system like the United States. It'll have capitalist system and it will over time develop a politically inclusive system. And that is why North Korea is one of the poorest places in the world and South Korea is one of the wealthiest places. same history, same population, but the difference is the institutions representative democracy and capitalism. Now, in terms terms of the third necessity for a nation to survive and thrive long term, religious freedom, unlike the other two, uh, religious freedom does not have a downside. And I can say this with confidence because separation between church and state and religious freedom are fundamental to any nation succeeding or thriving long term because no religion has a monopoly on intelligence and talent. And this is not an opinion. It is based on the fact that there are no such things as theocracies or rule by religion in which the society is equitable, fair and also thriving. The only examples of theocracies in the world we have right now are Afghanistan, Iran, uh Saudi Arabia, Vatican City, Yemen and uh Martania. It's a country in West Africa. And none of those countries you want to emulate cuz they are not thriving countries. There's no such thing as a theocracy that has ever been successful long term. So American individualism is a good thing, but like with everything, it can go too far. toxic individualism. And this isn't the type of it's not like it's always stable. Like the level of individualism, it will change over time. And when individualism goes too far, historically, it has led to crisis. periods of hyperindividualism we've had in US history. The 1850s right before the Civil War, the 1920s right before the Great Depression, World War II, and currently in the 2020s, we are going through another period of hyper toxic individualism. So doesn't mean that there is definitely going to be a crisis, but history does have a way of repeating itself. Well, not repeating, rhyming with itself, we'll say. And those three fundamentals, capitalism, representative democracy, and religious freedom, they will either spiral up together in what's called a virtuous circle, or they will spiral down together in a vicious circle. In a virtuous system, more people are able to become wealthy. More people are able to vote. more people have a say in the government. Um, and in the opposite, you get more and more political corruption, a government that does not represent the population, and you get uh more and more authoritarian state. So these things move in tandem with each other. That is the most important thing to understand about the United States and American culture from the first two colonies. The other important thing to know about the United States from those first two colonies is in Virginia and Massachusetts, we will get the regional sectional differences that culminate in the Civil War. Now most Americans are farmers until we get into the 1870s. But in the north they will develop a more balanced economy. They will have trade. They will have shipping um manu some manufacturing and banking finance stuff like that we call business. In the south though it will be completely dependent on staple crops. during at first it was uh tobacco but tobacco will be replaced as the most in demand natural resource by cotton which will eventually be replaced by oil. But cotton and tobacco the things about them is they need to be handpicked. There are no machines like a like we'll invent thrashers for wheat. So one family can take care of a large plot of land. That does not happen. You can't with cotton and tobacco you has to be handpicked which means the economy will develop around plantations and with plantations comes slaves. So those regional differences that we see in the very first two colonies founded by the British will eventually propel the United States into civil war.
