But as the economies of the North and South developed in opposing ways, it became apparent that the institution of slavery threatened to subvert freedom of white people as well. Virtually overnight the majority recognized that slavery mocked the ideals of freedom, and that accumulating wealth on the basis of slave labor was evil and should not be allowed. And they became willing to make great sacrifices in a bloody civil war to destroy it. The whole history of America is one of periods of individualism, greed, selfishness and inequality, alternating with opposite periods of social concern and egalitarianism. In these reactions against the destructiveness of profit making, people struggled to put limits on the scramble for wealth that was disrupting the cohesion and peace of society.
Today there is widespread apprehension and revulsion over the direction the nation is heading.
As the extent of the damage wrought by the free market becomes apparent to more and more people, a renewed sense of community solidarity to recapture the American ideal will rapidly emerge. It is then that the American people will need to finally understand that the ideal and the profit system are incompatible. We will have to choose, once and for all, between America of equality, democracy and freedom promised by the Revolution of 1776 and the America we know today of inequality, conflict and unrelenting violence.