Would this have been so horrible?

[Hortensis]

107. Ancient Greece and Rome had no concept of equality or

inborn human rights as stated in our Declaration of Independence. Rights, and/or lack of them, came with position--those at the top with the most, slaves at the bottom with none. Most people were considered born into various degrees of bondage, and "liberty" was something that was only given meaning by its degree within a hierarchy. Our southern states tended to be initially modeled after the classic Roman and Greek republics, paving the way for slavery.

Our concepts of equality and inalienable rights came from northern European cultures--German, Scandinavian, Netherlands, English--where freedom was a birthright, i.e., people were born free and possessed rights regardless of status. Tribes usually governed through assemblies, Scottish clans elected their leaders, etc. The world's first national parliament formed in Iceland over 1000 years ago (and continues today).

Our northeastern states were modeled on this belief system, as old as the Mediterranean ones more written about. And many of the things our revolution achieved had already been done a couple centuries earlier in The Netherlands, including declaring a right of the people to rebel against oppression and do away with kings. Nevertheless, the structure and principles of our new republic were unlike any others to that date, which had formed over centuries. And it was no accident that slavery never "took" in the north. People expected to pay in some way for assistance in their work, the way their ancestors had for untold centuries.

In trying to understand what's happening in American today, it's extremely important to consider that the greatest difference, of a number, between conservative and liberal personality is in attitudes toward equality. Greek and Roman beliefs on this were intrinsically extremely conservative, the northern European intrinsically liberal. Most conservatives in America do not support liberal notions of equality, and this is a major factor in their belief that the government that liberals of the revolutionary era succeeded in establishing is fundamentally flawed and "broken."

We liberals, of course, disagree not just in our guts or our bones but, as science has discovered, even down to a genetic level.

It's also discovered that people and cultures in hot climates are more conservative on average. (Check that one out with national and global political maps.) Something else to think about as the globe heats up...