Knockoff Knation
Nullius in verba, the motto of the Royal Society, or “take nobody’s word for it,” expressed the determination of its fellows to verify the ideas and statements in our valuable public discourse — especially from those who would assume authority — by “promoting knowledge of the natural world through observation and experiment, which we now call science.” The first meeting of the society occurred at Gresham College on November 28, 1660, and may be taken as an official launch of the revolutionary era in western civilization known as The Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason. The group soon received royal approval, and from 1663 it would be known as The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge.
Without the Enlightenment, arguably there would be no United States of America. As a nation, the republic cobbled together from thirteen British colonies was unique for its foundation upon an idea, rather than an ethnic identity. But yet, the further the Enlightenment recedes into history, the cheaper and more fetishized the American national identity gets until, ultimately, the lofty “rule of law” descends into economics of supply and demand. Thus, reduced to the simplistic trappings of patriotism, there is little left to distinguish what it means to be American from any other vainglorious “Blood and Soil” jingoism.
