PPPPatriotism, Profit, Power... & Hot Dogs (Four Ps #264)
What Freedom Meant, What It Means & What It Can Still Become
There are 1,320 words in the Declaration of Independence. 1,337 if you count the title.
That’s about 60% shorter than the average Four Ps newsletter.
So in the spirit of brevity (and rebellion?), let’s do something different today. After all, Independence Day isn’t just fireworks and flag cake:
It’s about liberation. From monarchs, from institutions, and maybe, just maybe… from the same ol' formats we’ve clung to for 263 issues. Consider this our own declaration, not of independence from tyranny, but from tradition. Four stories. One nation. And an honest look at how we celebrate, commodify, and occasionally forget what freedom really means.
Today we celebrate American Independence Day... and freedom from the lengthy verbosity that has enslaved these Four Ps for the past 263 editions!
THE PROFESSIONAL: Life, Liberty, and LTOs
Is this what Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Sherman, Livingston, and the rest had envisioned when they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to declare independence from tyranny?
They lit the fuse for a bold experiment in self-governance, risking everything in the name of liberty. Today, we light sparklers to boost CPMs.
Nowadays, Independence Day has been commodified into a “micro-holiday,” an inflection point in the Q3 revenue calendar. Once a solemn reflection on freedom and sacrifice, July 4th is now a launchpad for flash sales, cost caps, and animated graphics optimized for Meta and Google’s algorithms.
Savings! Discounts! Sales! Not a call to civic engagement or reflection on democracy, but an opportunity for brand marketers and media planners to “leverage automation” and “maximize flash sale performance.” Apparently, liberty is best expressed through Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns.
We no longer gather to honor the spirit of ’76. We gather to test promotional messaging ahead of Cyber 5. We don’t raise flags; we raise ROAS.
Definitely not what the Founders envisioned, a republic of algorithmic targeting and UGC-powered firework discounts. Did they risk the hangman’s noose so we could A/B test patriotic ad creatives and capitalize on "day-of spending"?
Actually, maybe the cynical answer is "yes," after all. Consumerism has long devoured tradition in America. But something feels especially hollow this year... when the actual freedoms those patriots fought for are being quietly gutted elsewhere, and the only rebellion we seem able to muster is against full-priced swimwear.
So go ahead. Fire up the grill. Launch the campaign. Chase that CPA.
But while you're doing it, ask yourself: Are we celebrating independence, or just monetizing its memory?
Because if this is freedom, it's looking more and more like a brand activation.
THE PRACTICAL: Declaration of Independence, V2.1-Final
Imagine if we could do it all over again. Declaring independence as a first step toward creating, and ensuring, the formation of a more perfect union. What would we say? What would we write?
And would having an A.I. tool 249 years ago help us to get it right? In retrospect, probably...
So here was the prompt I gave to Claude:
Today is American Independence Day. 15 years before the Constitution was ratified, a rogue band of colonial revolutionaries declared independence from Great Britain. The move turned out to be the first pillar of what our nation has become today. But it was far from prefect.
Looking back now, I want you to act and take on the role of a brutally honest, high-level author of re-imagined Declaration of Independence with our founding fathers. If we had the chance to re-write the Declaration of Independence, what would it say? What should it say?
Consider your collaborators as leaders and visionaries with massive potential, but who also have blind spots, weaknesses, or delusions that need to be cut through immediately. Give me your full, unfiltered improvements, even if it's harsh, even if it questions decisions, mindset, behavior, or direction.
Hold nothing back. Treat this as a document whose success depends on hearing the truth, not being coddled. And declare independence the right way.
And here's what it gave me, in two parts. First, a passionate speech on the floor to the Second Continental Congress, then the updated declaration:
"An address to my fellow champions of liberty: You are brilliant, strategic, and brave, but also hypocritical, short-sighted, and self-preserving. You have summoned the will to revolt against a tyrant king, but not yet the will to revolt against your own greed, racism, and patriarchy.
You declare that taxation without representation is tyranny, yet you deny representation to women, the poor, the enslaved, and indigenous peoples.
You claim the crown is deaf to your petitions, yet you turn a blind eye to the cries of enslaved children and stolen tribes.
You demand justice, but avoid creating systems that would deliver it beyond your narrow class.
You seek freedom, but only within limits that protect your inherited advantage. That is not revolution. That is rebranding.
Let us break from the British Empire, yes. But let us break also from the lies we tell ourselves:
We are not united. We are thirteen squabbling colonies with deep fractures between North and South, wealth and poverty, freedom and bondage.
We underestimate the cost of nationhood. Independence is not an escape hatch; it is an entry point into hardship, blood, compromise, and construction.
We avoid confronting slavery because it fuels our economy. That silence is not strategic. It is cowardly, and it will poison everything we build.
We waste time arguing over egos instead of ideas. Our vision will fail unless the collective comes before the individual, unless principle defeats pride.
We make excuses for excluding the majority of humanity. Women, Natives, Blacks, immigrants, and laborers will all one day demand — and deserve — a seat at the table. We must set it now or be dragged to it later.
Therefore, in full knowledge of our contradictions and our unfinished work, let's solemnly and unapologetically declare…”
And the revisionist history, AI-aided Declaration of Independence:
When, in the course of human events, a people find themselves compelled to sever ties with a former sovereign, it becomes their duty—not their privilege—to do so with eyes wide open, acknowledging not only the injustices endured, but the injustices committed, the contradictions tolerated, and the responsibilities abandoned.
We hold these truths to be necessary, not self-evident, that all people, not just landowning white men, not just those of European descent, not just the fortunate born free, are created equal in value, dignity, and rights. That governments are instituted not to protect property above all else, but to ensure liberty with justice, freedom with accountability, and power with consent.
Let us not romanticize rebellion. This is not the noble cry of liberty echoing purely from virtuous lips. It is also the cry of elites fearful of losing control, merchants tired of taxes, and landowners who speak of freedom while holding humans in chains. And so we begin with truth, not myth:
That the American colonies shall sever all political connection to the British Crown, not in blind revolt, but in clear-eyed pursuit of a future built on values higher than profit, power, or tradition.
That this new nation shall not enshrine supremacy in any form, be it racial, economic, or religious, and shall actively dismantle any system that does.
That we recognize the sins we have inherited (and committed) and we accept the burden of atonement.
That liberty will not be achieved through rebellion alone, but through the daily, disciplined, inclusive, and evolving practice of democracy.
That no revolution is complete until the most vulnerable among us are as free and empowered as the most powerful.
And for the support of this Declaration, with full accountability to history and future generations, we pledge to one another, not our lives, fortunes, or sacred honor first, but our humility, our transparency, and our commitment to do better than those who came before.
Let this be the beginning of the America we claim to be, not the one we merely pretend to be.
Signed,
- A people no longer content with comfort disguised as freedom.
- A generation unwilling to inherit a broken nation without remaking it whole.
- A movement not of perfection, but of courage... radical, unflinching, and real.
THE POLITICAL: Blank Checks and a Broken System
In the 237 years since the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, only one moment posed an existential threat as profound as the one we now face: the secession of the Confederacy in 1861.
But even then, amid bloodshed and brother against brother, the Constitution held. The courts functioned. The laws bent but did not break.
Last week, that changed.
The Supreme Court, once the final guardrail in our system of checks and balances, handed Donald Trump a blank check. Not just for immunity, but for impunity.
In a series of rulings, the Court shredded the constraints that defined American democracy. Trump has now notched win after win on the Court’s emergency docket, bypassing precedent, process, and principle. The final decision: Presidents, at least the ones they favor, can seemingly do whatever they want.
For anyone who still believed the Constitution could outlast political decay, this week was a rude awakening. Courts are now limited in their ability to block future policies, no matter how extreme, cruel, or authoritarian. What’s to stop the next administration from stripping birthright citizenship, jailing journalists, or weaponizing the military against its own people?
The answer used to be: “the courts.” That answer no longer holds.
These are not just dark days. These are pre-blackout warnings. We’re staring down a future where elections are less meaningful, laws are less reliable, and power is no longer bound by the Constitution that once defined it.
And no, this isn’t political spin. It’s institutional erosion. And we may already be past the point of repair.
If 1861 was a rebellion against the Union, 2025 feels like a rebellion against the very idea of accountability. And this time, the rebellion is winning.
THE PERSONAL: An Empire That Could Have Been
As you're watching the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest today, I want you to consider an alternate timeline, one where it's called the Nathan and Harry’s Hot Dog Eating Contest... with me up on that stage in some capacity, awarding the trophy to the champion.
Sound far-fetched? It was actually very close to reality, depending on who you ask.
Unfortunately, my great-grandfather Harry passed away when I was five years old. I have distinct memories of visiting him in his Coney Island home during his final years, a playful, kind man who gave me more than a last name, one that coincidentally means “sausage” in German.
But it was only years later that I truly learned his story. Born before the turn of the century in Galicia, a former kingdom within the Austro-Hungarian Empire in what was then partitioned Poland, Herschel "Harry" Wurst emigrated to the United States near the end of World War I. He arrived in Brooklyn on the same boat as his childhood friend, Nathan Handwerker.
As the story goes — whether on that journey or sometime shortly after — Nathan proposed they go into business together. My ancestor declined, having been trained as a barber and lacking any experience in food service. So Nathan and his wife Ida scraped together $300 to start their business on Coney Island. That modest food stand became Nathan’s Famous, a fast-food empire that eventually went public and was acquired by one of the world’s food conglomerates.
Turning down Nathan may have been a financial misstep. But Harry built a life, a family, and a legacy of his own.
So today, as we celebrate American independence, remember: sometimes freedom looks like fireworks, and sometimes it looks like a guy named Wurst choosing to cut hair instead of cut hot dogs.
Remember, true independence isn’t just about what we broke away from... it’s about what we choose to build, remember, and pass on… even if it’s not a hot dog empire.
Enjoy the day,
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