0:03 [SPEAKER_00]: One of the most important hometowns in American history is Alexandria, Virginia. 0:08 [SPEAKER_00]: Along with being the wealthiest city in Virginia, Alexandria is home to the Institute for Defense Analysis, the United States Paddened and Trademark Office in the National Science Foundation. 0:19 [SPEAKER_00]: This city of 150,000 boasts a long list of famous residents, including Nirvana Trummer, Dave Groll, Doris Frontman, Jim Morrison, Civil War General, Robert E. Lee, and NASA rocket scientist Warner Vombron, among many others. 0:38 [SPEAKER_00]: Alexandria was also location of some of the first fatalities of the American Civil War. 0:44 [SPEAKER_00]: When a union officer, Colonel Elmer Elzworth, removed a large confederate flag from the top of a local hotel called the Marshall House, a story we told in detail in last week's episode. 0:56 [SPEAKER_00]: But none of this is the reason for Alexandria's singular importance in American history, which is simply that in 1797 it was not Washington DC. 1:07 [SPEAKER_00]: Let me explain. 1:09 [SPEAKER_00]: These two cities, Alexandria, and Washington, face each other on the border of Virginia across the Batomic River. 1:17 [SPEAKER_00]: In 1797, when the United States reached one of the most pivotal moments in its now 250 year history, as the former General George Washington of the Revolutionary Army was reaching the end of his second presidential term. 1:31 [SPEAKER_00]: He chose to cross that river and live as an ordinary citizen in the Virginian countryside. 1:36 [SPEAKER_00]: If you know history, you know how this was supposed to go when military or political leaders revolutionize government and free it from the perceived oppression of the former regime. 1:47 [SPEAKER_00]: They tend to become the new oppressor. 1:50 [SPEAKER_00]: They assume the permanent power and the whole experiment changes. 1:54 [SPEAKER_00]: The Roman Republic becomes the Roman Empire. 1:57 [SPEAKER_00]: The French Republic becomes the French Empire. 2:01 [SPEAKER_00]: The Del Castro, Saddam Hussein, Joseph Stalin, Idea Men, all rise to power in the name of the people and become ruthless dictators in short order. 2:12 [SPEAKER_00]: The populist movement becomes a personality cult that becomes a form of fascism. 2:17 [SPEAKER_00]: And very soon, the general population is even worse off than before. 2:21 [SPEAKER_00]: That didn't happen here in America and we have one person to think for that George Washington. 2:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he was imperfect. 2:29 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he was a product of his age. 2:32 [SPEAKER_00]: It's true that he despised slavery and freed his slaves in his will and set aside money to educate and care for them for 30 years after his wife's death, but he still owned them in the first place. 2:45 [SPEAKER_00]: That was bad. 2:46 [SPEAKER_00]: We know this, and we've advanced as a society over the last 250 years, but George Washington held the American 2:56 [SPEAKER_00]: There were people, like Alexander Hamilton, who wanted to make him king. 3:01 [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, he gave the Republic back to the people, and changed the trajectory of our nation in the process. 3:08 [SPEAKER_00]: He stepped down after his second term, and what became the accepted dormit for the next 150 years. 3:16 [SPEAKER_00]: The reason I wanted to do this episode on Washington is the recent 3:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Historians have routinely ranked Washington as the first, second, or third, best president in American history, but that is changing rapidly as internet mobs reduce history to two dimensional caricatures in which people are evaluated solely by the worst parts of the resume. 3:45 [SPEAKER_00]: It's true that George Washington benefited from the labor of slaves, so do you, every time you turn on 3:55 [SPEAKER_00]: We may not personally own slaves today, but we are part of an economic masterclass. 4:01 [SPEAKER_00]: If you are listening to this podcast, you are doing so on a device, literally powered by the sweat and blood of African children who mind precious metals in life-threatening conditions. 4:13 [SPEAKER_00]: The cobalt in your lithium ion battery is the product of child slave labor. 4:17 [SPEAKER_00]: And what do you do about that? 4:19 [SPEAKER_00]: Nothing. 4:20 [SPEAKER_00]: You enjoy your social media, and your music, and shrug, because what can you do? 4:27 [SPEAKER_00]: George Washington asked the same question. 4:30 [SPEAKER_00]: He was opposed to slavery, but never joined the abolitionist movement. 4:34 [SPEAKER_00]: He believed engaging this issue in the first decade of the country's existence with terror apart, who knows, and even if it had torn this country apart, is there ever an acceptable defense for something so evil as slavery? 4:50 [SPEAKER_00]: But the point is, history is complicated, where products of our age, all of us, to some degree. 4:56 [SPEAKER_00]: We live in the world as it was handed to us, we change 5:05 [SPEAKER_00]: It's dishonest for us to live as we do at the top of a global economy that thrives on the contributions of slave labor. 5:13 [SPEAKER_00]: While demonizing men, my George Washington, the cobalt thing, is just one of the countless examples of the economic and societal crimes we are guilty of in the first world. 5:25 [SPEAKER_00]: The difference between Washington and us is one of degree. 5:29 [SPEAKER_00]: He committed a crime 5:35 [SPEAKER_00]: The sins of our generation will eventually be outed and explored by future generations, and you so ruthlessly judge the sins of those who came before us, and you should hope that they are more nuanced and understanding than we are.
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