第一個人民公社不是指英國工業革命時期 Robert Owen 所建立的空想社會主義公社(1832年) ；不是指普法戰爭剛剛結束時〝法共起義〞所建立的巴黎公社 (1871年) ；不是指日俄戰爭剛剛結束時、布爾什維克的托洛斯基宣稱在聖彼得堡建立的蘇維埃(始創人其實是無政府主義者Voline) (1905年) ；不是指在第一次世界大戰前後猶太復國主義者在巴勒斯坦所建立的 Kibbutz (拉丁化希伯萊文，意即公社) (1914年) ；更不是指1958年正式在中國遍地成立的人民公社。

第一個人民公社建立於1620年，即莎士比亞去世後四年，也即是明神宗 (萬曆帝) 駕崩、光宗繼位的那一年。地點？正就是日後美國立國的根據地波士頓東南的鱈角 (Cape Cod) 。

走到美國任何一個角落，只要您張開眼睛，就不難發現這一個名字：Mayflower (五月花號) 。五月花號是一隻破而不沉的跨洋貨船，載着的是一群破落但不淪落的清教徒。船上沒有人預料到，他們所作的艱苦航程，也正是美國建國前最重要的長征。最重要，因為他們將會在新地上最早證明人民公社的必然失敗，同時也最早證明私產權的不可或缺。私產權正就是1776年美國立國之本。

五月花號憲章(Mayflower Compact) 本身可以是虛文，正如所有憲法本身都可以是虛文一樣。真正使人行憲守憲的是私產權。每個人都是私產權擁有者，即使您是百分百的不名一文。不名一文的您擁有生命。您我的生命是無價之寶。解放奴隸、解放婦女、解放民族，無一不是基於對個體生命擁有權的維護。若果我們不能行使自己的生存權 (也即最基本的私產權)，哪我們算是什麼呢？憲法算是什麼呢？

生存權的行使，也是對生存資料的需求。生存資料有限，而需求無限。以有涯隨無涯，怎辦呢？分配嘛 。好。利用厚生。然而，誰分配、誰主浮沉呢？

五月花號的一眾跟我們一樣，知道開源，對大同社會無限憧憬。可以理解、五月花號長征生還者的集體主義情緒強烈，嚮往公社，涓滴歸公。於是、雖然五月花號憲章尊重個人自主權，第一個人民公社卻在北美洲正式成立了---歷史代號是 Plymouth Colony；由一個〝中央小組〞以上帝名義實施大鑊飯政策，革私產權的命。

Plymouth Colony很快就發現數百年後蘇聯太晚才承認的事實：上面強行分配，下面就虛作賣力。

公社的人終於在祈禱中看到上帝哪無形的手：私產權。(Adam Smith 說上帝哪無形的手是價格，不對。) 於是，重新根據五月花號憲章，恢復了私產權，為創富而推翻了自建的公社制，開始了一個還未有美國的美國夢。

1776 and 1865

America declared independence on July 4th, 1776. By September 3rd, 1783, the American Revolution War had come to a victorious end. However, the American states were not quite united yet. As a matter of fact, the burried issue of slavery was still too visible as a fault line dividing the North and the South. The North-South marriage was therefore hardly consummated. America was more a Confederation than a United States. 

Economy-wise, the North was essentially about commerce and industry, which attracted free-moving entrepreneurs and workers alike. The South was just the opposite. Its plantations called for a serfdom of laborers tied to the land, which appealed to slave ownership.

Where patriotism made American independence possible and successful, slavery made American union insecure and unstable. Meanwhile, where religion generated light and discourse, agitation generated heat and discord.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand," so Abraham Lincoln said, and thus he set out to unite the North and the South when secession had to be reversed or would be irreversible. In history, civil wars were prone to be more bloody than foreign wars. The American Civil War was no exception. It concluded in 1865, the year an American nation was reborn. Without such rebirth, the United States would have been a nation that failed the way many Latin American nations did.

Let me celebrate the 4th of July by putting the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation together. Combined, they documented how and why we Americans had saved “the last best hope of earth.” 

What’s saved can be lost. My generation must not lose it.

--- Lingyang Jiang