What happened to American self-evidence?

Mockery and lulz took its place.

Hold These Truths

We need to talk about self-evidence, that clever quality of certain propositions that serve as their own proof.

Use the word “self-evident,” try it—but sparingly. This is my radical idea and it’s self-evident. See what you can get away with.

Here are two self-evident propositions by two illustrious Georgians, 240 years apart:

“If we allow slaves we act against the very principles by which we associated together, which was to relieve the distressed.” — James Edward Oglethorpe, letter, 1739

“Our nation must be fair to the poorest among us.” — President Jimmy Carter, speech, 1979

Relieve the distressed and be fair to the poor. Oglethorpe and Carter both tuck their moral imperatives into a clause, where they can be assumed as true for all. The proposition that one should help the downtrodden is given no extrinsic proof. Of course it’s not. No one would ask for it. It’s self-evident to anyone who can read Oglethorpe’s letter and understand Carter’s speech that we should endeavor to relieve the distressed. It’s also self-evident that we should treat the poor fairly.

To think about self-evidence, and whether the term is useful or merely coercive, is to wonder how we got an incoming administration that doesn’t just advocate for far-fetched ideas, or chronically lie, but rejects formerly unimpeachable ideas.