I urge you to read it all.
Read more: http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/alexis-de-tocqueville-how-people-gain-liberty-and-lose-it/#ixzz2IjaDJM4J
Tocqueville was the man who discovered American individualism—he described it somewhat negatively as “a mature and calm feeling which disposes each member of the community to sever himself from the mass of his fellow-creatures, and to draw apart with his family and friends.” Yet he talked approvingly about self-help, a hallmark of American individualism. For example: “The citizen of the United States is taught from infancy to rely upon his own exertions in order to resist the evils and the difficulties of life; he looks upon the social authority with an eye of mistrust and anxiety, and he claims its assistance only when he is unable to do without it.”
With phenomenal foresight, Tocqueville predicted that the welfare state would become a curse. For example: “Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood; it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances; what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?”
Sorry to cut and paste, however I find these passages most notable. The last paragraph in particular. I have seen a redefining of Democracy that has allowed this, here in America.
IOW, the civil society as Mark Levin reminds us.
FDR, LBJ, Bam and decades of horrible laws and court decisions have nearly destroyed the civil society and blown a wide gap in the front lines of our freedom; the rat hordes are pouring through.
Oh please. de Tocqueville?
Just another dead white guy
It’s Obama’s time now....
/s
Excellent post, and yes, its even more relevant today. Thanks for sharing the legacy of this great person with everyone. On a side note, similar themes were reflected in Levin’s book “Liberty and Tyranny”.
Sadly I think we’ve slipped too far as a nation and de Tocqueville’s powerful logic and reason will not convince most Americans that we’re headed down the path of self-destruction. Ironically only an economic calamity will save us now. The country needs a reality check.
If you read the guy, you will find out that he was not nearly as positive about America or democracy as you might expect.
He was very clear that he considered the expansion of democracy inevitable, but he considered this to be negative in a lot of ways. He saw a lot of good in the disappearing aristocratic ideal.