Hegel: On the Basic Character of American Society

Here is G.W.F. Hegel on the “basic character of American society”:

In further comparing North America with Europe we find in the former the perennial example of a republican system of government. There is an inner unity in it, for there is a president as head of state who is elected for only four years (as security agasint any possible monarchical ambitions). The general protection of property and the almost total absence of taxes are continually commended. This shows us the basic character of the society: it is marked by the private person's striving for acquisistion and profit and by the predominance of a private interest which devotes itself to the community for personal benefit alone. There is, to be sure, a legal system, and a formal code of laws; but this legality has nothing to do with integrity--and so the American merchants have the bad reputation of cheating with the protection of the law.

This excerpt is from the “Geographical Basis of History” chapter from the Introduction to The Philosophy of History, a text that was published posthumously. My edition is based on an 1840 edition, but Hegel died in 1831, so I'm not sure when Hegel wrote this passage. In any case, it's remarkable how applicable this account of the American character is at present, at least 174 years later. I’m thinking not only of the emphasis in American culture on the individual pursuit of profit and property that Hegel discerns, but also and especially of the functioning of the legal system and its lack of integrity.

If ever I publish an article on William Gaddis, I’ll have to use Hegel’s line about “this legality has nothing to do with integrity” as an epigraph. Gaddis’s JR is all about “cheating with the protection of the law,” which is a useful way of explaining the concept of exemption, which, as a motivator for all sorts of schemes and incentives, is a driving force in American culture and one on which Thomas Pynchon in particular, but many other American literary figures as well, has a strong interest.