When Frank asked if America's revolutionary spirit is gone, I couldn't help thinking that the problem is not that it's gone but that with time it became even worse and more progressive. I was reminded of one of Mencius Moldbug's posts from a while ago which summarized the American revolution from a reactionary point of view. Here are a few choice bits.

And the American Revolution was, in my own personal opinion, more or less, basically, a criminal outrage of the mob - led by leaders who were either unscrupulous, deluded, or both.

. . . the rebels in the American Revolution were motivated by an ideology that was utterly deluded, that amounted to no more than a wacky conspiracy theory. The point is not even slightly arguable. Their interpretation of British politics simply had no basis in reality.

Since this delusional interpretation was the linchpin of their argument for rebellion, and since their reliance on street violence and paramilitary formations is indisputable, they can fairly be classed as unscrupulous or deluded mob leaders - regardless of any classification in the scruples department, a historical task which often verges on the impossible.

. . . In other words, our Founding Fathers were more or less the Troofers of their day. Or, to put it differently, America obtained its independence because of a war that was started by people who were genuinely terrified of the 18th-century equivalent of black helicopters.

. . . Britain was not on a path to a weird, 1984-like future with gold braids and epaulets, crushed under the iron heel of the King, the Church of England and the Lords. Rather, the power of throne and altar and fief in Britain had been dwindling almost monotonically since Mary Tudor - a process which of course has continued to this day.

If you want to understand why he holds this somewhat unpopular opinion, I'm afraid you'll have to read the whole thing which is in Moldbug's consistently long-winded style. If you are wondering what the hell all this is about but can't deal with his writing style, last year I condensed the whole of the Moldbuggian worldview into a single post.

To all our American readers we wish a happy Fourth of July. Hopefully a few of you will get sufficiently drunk at your parties to start spouting anti-revolutionary and anti-democratic rhetoric. Throw in a little secessionism, too. That should be fun.