Happy Fourth! (C)

“And so I sit here.  Outside everything is in motion.  The issue of nationality reverberates through everything.  Everyone speaks of sacrificing life and blood, and maybe he is even willing to do so, but with the support of all-powerful public opinion.  And so I sit here in a quiet room.  Most likely I will soon be denounced for indifference concerning the national cause: I know of only one danger, that of the religious.”

-Søren Kierkegaard (Journals)

1848.  A riotous time.  All of Europe was in a fervor over the nationality question.  Governments were overthrown, wars were started.  It was quite a tumultuous year.

In Copenhagen, 1848 took hold of the Danes in a decidedly Danish way.  Tens of thousands of people gathered in front of both the Christiansborg Castle and the City Hall at Nytorv.  They demanded the ministry be dissolved.  After a while, the chairman of the representatives of the city government, L. N. Hvidt, came out and declared, “I’m with you guys!”  Then, he led the city hall mob over to join the castle mob, and spoke with the king.  After another while, he came out and told the crowd, “the king’s with you guys too!  The ministry’s dissolved!”

Everyone cheered, looked at each other, and then… went on home.  Mission accomplished.

During all of this fearsome revolution, the esteemed philospher stayed upstairs in his apartment, watching cautiously from his window.  He, along with the other intellectuals of the time, would have none of this rowdy business.  In fact, he was worried he would become a martyr.

You see, he had just published a book that cited Saint Peter, who “abandoned the faith of his fathers, and thus the people to whom he belonged, the land of his birth, whose love binds with the strongest bonds.  Because now he no longer belonged to any people, he belonged only to the Lord Jesus.”  This was not a very popular sentiment among the nationalists.

The philosopher was also very much skeptical of democracy, at least in Denmark.  He was very comfortable with the monarchy, and had no interest in personally participating in politics.

As it turned out, there was no martyrdom.  The monarchy remained (and still remains – the oldest monarchy in the world), the philosopher continued writing, and the mobs got their way.

Today, as you watch fireworks and hold sparklers in the spirit of nationality, as you drink beer and eat hot dogs with patriotic fervor, think of Søren Kierkegaard, who risked martyrdom to declare that there is a higher allegiance than nation – that of God.