Thomas Jefferson and the Ideal Society: Lessons for the Present

It almost seems cliche today to look back at our founding fathers and try and find some enlightenment on how we should live our lives or conduct our government, but nevertheless it is an incredibly worthwhile endeavor, especially looking back at our third President, Thomas Jefferson. He envisioned something that is lacking in our society today, something that is not only lacking but something that we are in dire need for, public virtue. This is something that we seem to have lost, in the midst of special interest politics and "greed is good" economics. It would be beneficial to take a look back at Jefferson and re-stake a claim to public virtue in America.

There are far too many in America who feel the public good is merely the sum, or the compromise between all the special interest groups in America, all lobbying and publicly pandering to get what they want. It is this conception of the public good that masks true public virtue in America. When people, from an early age are taught that it is essential for the politics of this nation to do what is in their own interest at all times it creates citizens (if in fact that term can be used) that are not concerned about America but themselves and their narrow special interest groups. We need to get back to to seeing that true public good, and instilling public virtue in America. This is found especially in the great idealist, Thomas Jefferson, and in his conception of the ideal society in America: the yeoman farmer republic. Jefferson writes in a letter to John Jay, “We have now lands enough to employ an infinite number of people in their cultivation. Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country, and wedded to its liberty and interests, by the most lasting bonds.” (Thomas Jefferson, “Letter to John Jay (Private), August 23, 1785). For Jefferson there is something about the farmer that harkens back to the earth, that essential, almost primal connection that the yeoman farmer has with the earth cultivates virtue in the republic along side the produce of the nation.

It is important not to get caught up in the particulars here though, it is important to see that Jefferson is not only idealizing a society but he is making some very astute commentary on the ideal citizen as well. He is saying that the ideal citizen for the nation is someone that is concerned not about his or her own interests and status but about the nation as a whole. It is someone who in many ways is selfless, not selfish. Looking out for the common good of the whole and not the sum of special interests.

Some say that Jefferson is an idealist and that his ideas are unrealistic or impractical, but, just because an idea is not practical, does that make it not worth striving after? Jefferson is really onto something here, he has points that need to be heeded, and are not limited merely to the early republic.

What are the lessons for today that we can take from Jefferson? Is he saying that we should all quit our jobs and buy a plot of land? Revert back to an agrarian society where we all grow our own food and are tied to the land? Of course not. What we need to take from this is the essence of his conception of society and the citizen that lives in it. Jefferson would say that we need to tie ourselves to this country like the farmer does, but not in a literal sense. We must not not let our roots take hold in the loose soil of special interest but in the hearty and rich soil of the United States as a whole.

This is even more important than ever today. We should put aside affiliations of Red or Blue, Democrat or Republican, and take part in America. We should discern for ourselves, using our talents and our reasoning capability to find out what is best for America. Rise above special interest politics, and our own selfish desires and interests and look to America as a whole. Being a true citizen for Jefferson is putting aside, or rising above selfish special interests and being a a publicly virtuous citizen with concerns for the public good of the entire nation. This is not easy but if it is done rightly the idealism of Jefferson can become a twenty-first century reality.