~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Book Four, Chapter VIII
Showing posts with label people - de Tocqueville; Alexis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label people - de Tocqueville; Alexis. Show all posts
Apr 9, 2022
Alexis de Tocqueville on history
When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
Dec 30, 2021
Alexis de Tocqueville on the features of despotism
I seek to trace the novel features under which despotism may appear in the world. The first thing that strikes the eye is an innumerable multitude of men, all equal and alike... Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and 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 whould rejoice, provided that 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... what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and the trouble of living?
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume 2
Oct 26, 2021
Alexis de Tocqueville on democracy
Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions; they want to be led, and they wish to remain free: as they cannot destroy either the one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once. They devise a sole, tutelary, and all powerful form of government, but elected by the people. They combine the principle of centralization and that of popular sovereignty; this gives them a respite: they console themselves for being in tutelage by the reflection that they have chosen their own guardians. Every man allows himself to be put in leading-strings, because he sees that it is not a person or a class of persons but the people at large, who hold the end of his chain.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835)
Feb 23, 2021
Alexis de Tocqueville on democracy and equality
Democratic nations are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville on equality and envy
Equality is a slogan based on envy.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville on man's passion for equality
There is, in fact, a manly and lawful passion for equality that incites men to wish all to be powerful and honored. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
(Cited by Anthony Esolen in The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization, p. 229.)
Nov 18, 2020
Alexis de Tocqueville on what makes America great
America is great because America is good. When America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, sociologist, 1805-1859
Aug 21, 2017
Alexis de Tocqueville on how slavery was already dying an economic death in the 1830s
A century had already passed since the founding of the colonies and an extraordinary fact began to strike the attention of everyone. The population of those provinces which had virtually no slaves increased in numbers, wealth, and prosperity more rapidly than those which did have them.
In the former, however, then inhabitants were forced to cultivate the ground themselves or to hire someone else to do it; in the latter, they had laborers at their disposal whom they did not need to pay. With labor and expense on one side and leisure and savings on the other, nevertheless the advantage lay with the former.
This outcome seemed all the more difficult to explain since the immigrants all belonged to the same European race with the same habits, the same civilization, the same laws, and there were only barely perceptible shades of differences between them.
As time went on, the Anglo-Americans left the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to plunge day by day ever further into abandoned spaces of the West, where they encountered new land and climates and had to overcome various obstacles. Races mingled; men from the South moved North; men from the North moved South. Amid all these circumstances, the same fact repeated itself at every step and, in general, the colony without slaves became more populous and prosperous than the one in which slavery flourished.
As further advances were made, people began, therefore to perceive that slavery, as cruel as it was for the slave, was fatal to the master.
But the truth of this provided its final proof when civilization reached the banks of the Ohio.
The stream named by the Indians as the Ohio, or the Beautiful River, irrigates one of the most magnificent valleys in which man has ever made his home. On both banks of the Ohio stretches undulating land whose soil lavishes upon the plowman inexhaustible riches. On both banks, the air is equally healthy and the climate temperate; each bank forms the frontier of a vast state: the one to the left tracing the many windings of the Ohio is called Kentucky, the other takes its name from the river itself. The two states differ in only one respect: Kentucky has accepted slaves but Ohio has rejected them from its lands.
The traveler who, positioned at the center of the Ohio River, drifts downstream to its junction with the Mississippi is, therefore, steering a path between freedom and slavery, so to speak, and he only has to look about him to judge immediately which is the more beneficial for mankind.
On the left bank of the river the population is sparse; occasionally a troop of slaves can be seen loitering in half-deserted fields; the primeval forest grows back again everywhere; society seems to be asleep; man looks idle while nature looks active and alive.
On the right bank, by contrast, a confused hum announces from a long way off the presence of industrial activity; the fields are covered by abundant harvests; elegant dwellings proclaim the taste and industry of the workers; in every direction there is evidence of comfort; men appear wealthy and content: they are at work.
The state of Kentucky was founded in 1775, Ohio just twelve years later: twelve years in America is more than half a century in Europe. Today the population of Ohio is already more than 250,000 greater than that of Kentucky.
The contrasting effects of slavery and freedom are easily understood and are enough to explain many of the differences between ancient and contemporary civilization.
On the left bank of the Ohio, work is connected with the idea of slavery, on the right bank with the idea of prosperity and progress; on the one side, it is a source of humiliation, on the other, of honor; on the left bank of the river no white laborers are to be found as they would dread to like like slaves; they have to look to Negroes for such work. On the right bank it would be a waste of time to look for an idle man, as the whites extend their energy and intelligence to every sort of work.
Thus, the men in Kentucky who are responsible for exploiting the natural abundance of the soil lack both enthusiasm and knowledge, whereas those who might possess these qualities either do nothing or cross over into Ohio in order to be able to profit by their efforts and do so without dishonor.
[...]
On both banks of the Ohio, nature has endowed man with an enterprising and energetic character but on each side of the river men use this shared quality in different ways.
The white man on the right bank, being forced to live by his own efforts, has made material prosperity his life's main aim. Since he lives in a country offering inexhaustible resources to his hard work and continuous inducements to his activity, his enthusiasm for possessing things has passed the normal bounds of human greed. Driven on by his longing for wealth, he boldly embarks upon all the paths which fortune opens before him. He does not mind whether he becomes a sailor, a pioneer, a factory worker, a farmer, enduring with an even constancy the labors or dangers associated with these various professions. There is something wonderful in the ingenuity of his talent and a kind of heroism in his desire for profit.
The American on the left bank not only looks down upon work but also upon those undertakings which succeed through work. Living in a relaxed indleness, he has the tastes of idle men; money has lost a part of its value in his eyes; he is less interested in wealth than excitement and pleasure and he deploys in this direction all the energy his neighbor devotes to other things; he is passionately fond of hunting and war; he enjoys the most vigorous of physical exercise; he is well versed in the use of weapons and from childhood he has learned to risk his life in single combat. Slavery, therefore, not merely prevents the whites from making money but even diverts them from any desire to do so.
The same reasons which have for two centuries worked in opposition to each other in the English colonies of the northern part of America have in the end created an amazing difference between the commercial capabilities of men from the South and those from the North. Today, only the North has ships, factories, railroads, and canals.
[...]
Gradually, as the truth of this became evident in the United States, slavery retreated little by little in the face of the knowledge gained by experience.
Slavery had begun in the South and had then spread toward the North; at the present time, it is receding. Freedom, starting from the North, is moving without interruption toward the South.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1840), pp. 404-409
In the former, however, then inhabitants were forced to cultivate the ground themselves or to hire someone else to do it; in the latter, they had laborers at their disposal whom they did not need to pay. With labor and expense on one side and leisure and savings on the other, nevertheless the advantage lay with the former.
This outcome seemed all the more difficult to explain since the immigrants all belonged to the same European race with the same habits, the same civilization, the same laws, and there were only barely perceptible shades of differences between them.
As time went on, the Anglo-Americans left the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to plunge day by day ever further into abandoned spaces of the West, where they encountered new land and climates and had to overcome various obstacles. Races mingled; men from the South moved North; men from the North moved South. Amid all these circumstances, the same fact repeated itself at every step and, in general, the colony without slaves became more populous and prosperous than the one in which slavery flourished.
As further advances were made, people began, therefore to perceive that slavery, as cruel as it was for the slave, was fatal to the master.
But the truth of this provided its final proof when civilization reached the banks of the Ohio.
The stream named by the Indians as the Ohio, or the Beautiful River, irrigates one of the most magnificent valleys in which man has ever made his home. On both banks of the Ohio stretches undulating land whose soil lavishes upon the plowman inexhaustible riches. On both banks, the air is equally healthy and the climate temperate; each bank forms the frontier of a vast state: the one to the left tracing the many windings of the Ohio is called Kentucky, the other takes its name from the river itself. The two states differ in only one respect: Kentucky has accepted slaves but Ohio has rejected them from its lands.
The traveler who, positioned at the center of the Ohio River, drifts downstream to its junction with the Mississippi is, therefore, steering a path between freedom and slavery, so to speak, and he only has to look about him to judge immediately which is the more beneficial for mankind.
On the left bank of the river the population is sparse; occasionally a troop of slaves can be seen loitering in half-deserted fields; the primeval forest grows back again everywhere; society seems to be asleep; man looks idle while nature looks active and alive.
On the right bank, by contrast, a confused hum announces from a long way off the presence of industrial activity; the fields are covered by abundant harvests; elegant dwellings proclaim the taste and industry of the workers; in every direction there is evidence of comfort; men appear wealthy and content: they are at work.
The state of Kentucky was founded in 1775, Ohio just twelve years later: twelve years in America is more than half a century in Europe. Today the population of Ohio is already more than 250,000 greater than that of Kentucky.
The contrasting effects of slavery and freedom are easily understood and are enough to explain many of the differences between ancient and contemporary civilization.
On the left bank of the Ohio, work is connected with the idea of slavery, on the right bank with the idea of prosperity and progress; on the one side, it is a source of humiliation, on the other, of honor; on the left bank of the river no white laborers are to be found as they would dread to like like slaves; they have to look to Negroes for such work. On the right bank it would be a waste of time to look for an idle man, as the whites extend their energy and intelligence to every sort of work.
Thus, the men in Kentucky who are responsible for exploiting the natural abundance of the soil lack both enthusiasm and knowledge, whereas those who might possess these qualities either do nothing or cross over into Ohio in order to be able to profit by their efforts and do so without dishonor.
[...]
On both banks of the Ohio, nature has endowed man with an enterprising and energetic character but on each side of the river men use this shared quality in different ways.
The white man on the right bank, being forced to live by his own efforts, has made material prosperity his life's main aim. Since he lives in a country offering inexhaustible resources to his hard work and continuous inducements to his activity, his enthusiasm for possessing things has passed the normal bounds of human greed. Driven on by his longing for wealth, he boldly embarks upon all the paths which fortune opens before him. He does not mind whether he becomes a sailor, a pioneer, a factory worker, a farmer, enduring with an even constancy the labors or dangers associated with these various professions. There is something wonderful in the ingenuity of his talent and a kind of heroism in his desire for profit.
The American on the left bank not only looks down upon work but also upon those undertakings which succeed through work. Living in a relaxed indleness, he has the tastes of idle men; money has lost a part of its value in his eyes; he is less interested in wealth than excitement and pleasure and he deploys in this direction all the energy his neighbor devotes to other things; he is passionately fond of hunting and war; he enjoys the most vigorous of physical exercise; he is well versed in the use of weapons and from childhood he has learned to risk his life in single combat. Slavery, therefore, not merely prevents the whites from making money but even diverts them from any desire to do so.
The same reasons which have for two centuries worked in opposition to each other in the English colonies of the northern part of America have in the end created an amazing difference between the commercial capabilities of men from the South and those from the North. Today, only the North has ships, factories, railroads, and canals.
[...]
Gradually, as the truth of this became evident in the United States, slavery retreated little by little in the face of the knowledge gained by experience.
Slavery had begun in the South and had then spread toward the North; at the present time, it is receding. Freedom, starting from the North, is moving without interruption toward the South.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1840), pp. 404-409
Alexis de Tocqueville on who goes into politics
In the United States, men of moderate desires commit themselves to the twists and turns of politics. Men of great talent and passion in general avoid power to pursue wealth; it often comes about that only those who feel inadequate in the conduct of their own business undertake to direct the fortunes of the state.
These reasons, quite as much as any poor decisions of democracy, have to account for the great number of coarse men holding public office. I do not know whether the people of the United States would choose men of superior qualities who might canvass their votes but it is certain that such men do not bid for office.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, p. 238
These reasons, quite as much as any poor decisions of democracy, have to account for the great number of coarse men holding public office. I do not know whether the people of the United States would choose men of superior qualities who might canvass their votes but it is certain that such men do not bid for office.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, p. 238
Aug 5, 2015
Alexis de Tocqueville on the destiny of two great powers: America and Russia (1840)
Today, two great nations of the earth seem to be advancing toward the same destination from different starting points: the Russians and the Anglo-Americans.
Both have grown unobserved and, while men's attention has been preoccupied elsewhere, they have climbed up into the leading rank of nations and the world has learned of both their birth and their greatness at almost the same moment.
All other nations appear to have reached almost the upper limits of their natural development and have nothing left to do except preserve what they have, whereas these two nations are growing: all the others have either halted or are advancing by a great exertion of effort, whereas these two progress rapidly and comfortably on a seemingly unending course as far as we can see.
Americans struggle against obstacles placed there by nature; Russians are in conflict with men. The former fight the wilderness and barbarity; the latter, civilization with all its weaponry: thus, American victories are achieved with the plowshare, Russia's with the soldier's sword.
To achieve their aim, the former rely upon self-interest and allow free scope to the unguided strength and common sense of individuals.
The latter focus the whole power of society upon a single man.
The former deploy freedom as their main mode of action; the latter, slavish obedience.
The point of departure is different, their paths are diverse, but each of them seems destined by some secret providential design to hold in their hands the fate of half the world at some date in the future.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1840
Both have grown unobserved and, while men's attention has been preoccupied elsewhere, they have climbed up into the leading rank of nations and the world has learned of both their birth and their greatness at almost the same moment.
All other nations appear to have reached almost the upper limits of their natural development and have nothing left to do except preserve what they have, whereas these two nations are growing: all the others have either halted or are advancing by a great exertion of effort, whereas these two progress rapidly and comfortably on a seemingly unending course as far as we can see.
Americans struggle against obstacles placed there by nature; Russians are in conflict with men. The former fight the wilderness and barbarity; the latter, civilization with all its weaponry: thus, American victories are achieved with the plowshare, Russia's with the soldier's sword.
To achieve their aim, the former rely upon self-interest and allow free scope to the unguided strength and common sense of individuals.
The latter focus the whole power of society upon a single man.
The former deploy freedom as their main mode of action; the latter, slavish obedience.
The point of departure is different, their paths are diverse, but each of them seems destined by some secret providential design to hold in their hands the fate of half the world at some date in the future.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1840
Mar 18, 2014
Alexis de Tocqueville on the state of education in America in 1831
It is not only the fortunes of men which are equal in America; even their requirements partake in some degree of the same uniformity. I do not believe that there is a country in the world where, in proportion to the population, there are so few uninstructed and at the same time so few learned
individuals. Primary instruction is within the reach of everybody; superior instruction is scarcely to be obtained by any. This is not surprising; it is in fact the necessary consequence of what we have advanced above. Almost all the Americans are in easy circumstances, and can therefore obtain the first elements of human knowledge.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Chapter 3, The Social Condition of the Anglo-Americans
(This entire chapter is worth reading. To put this in perspective, remember that De Tocqueville wrote this in 1831 before Horace Mann began the destruction of education in the private sector starting in Massachusetts... see Sheldon Richman, "Separating School and State.")
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Chapter 3, The Social Condition of the Anglo-Americans
(This entire chapter is worth reading. To put this in perspective, remember that De Tocqueville wrote this in 1831 before Horace Mann began the destruction of education in the private sector starting in Massachusetts... see Sheldon Richman, "Separating School and State.")
Mar 20, 2013
Alexis De Tocqueville on empires
Nothing opposes the prosperity and freedom of men as much as great empires.
~ Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America
~ Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America
Sep 25, 2009
Alexis de Tocqueville on centralization and war
All military geniuses love centralization, which increases their strength, and all centralizing geniuses love war, which obliges nations to concentrate all powers in the hands of the state.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume 2 (1840)
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume 2 (1840)
Dec 2, 2008
Alexis de Tocqueville on individual rights
It is therefore most especially in the present democratic times that the true friends of the liberty and the greatness of man ought constantly to be on the alert, to prevent the power of government from lightly sacrificing the private rights of individuals to the general execution of its designs. At such times, no citizen is so obscure that it is not very dangerous to allow him to be oppressed; no private rights are so unimportant that they can be surrendered with impunity to the caprices of a government.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835)
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835)
Sep 3, 2008
Alexis de Tocqueville on the American work ethic
In the United States, as soon as a man has acquired some education and pecuniary resources, he either endeavors to get rich by commerce or industry, or he buys land in the bush and turns pioneer. All that he asks of the state is, not to be disturbed in his toil, and to be secure of his earnings.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835)
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835)
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| Hardships of Emigration 1898 |
Dec 4, 2007
Alexis de Tocqueville on welfare statism
The will of men is not shattered (by the welfare state), but softened, bent, and guided. Men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence. It does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, until each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
Nov 30, 2007
Alexis de Tocqueville on slavery
I do not think it is for me, a foreigner, to indicate to the United States the time, the measures, or the men by whom Slavery shall be abolished.
Still, as the persevering enemy of despotism everywhere, and under all its forms, I am pained and astonished by the fact that the freest people in the world is, at the present time, almost the only one among civilized and Christian nations which yet maintains personal servitude; and this while serfdom itself is about disappearing, where it has not already disappeared, from the most degraded nations of Europe.
An old and sincere friend of America, I am uneasy at seeing Slavery retard her progress, tarnish her glory, furnish arms to her detractors, compromise the future career of the Union which is the guaranty of her safety and greatness, and point out beforehand to her, to all her enemies, the spot where they are to strike. As a man, too, I am moved at the spectacle of man's degradation by man, and I hope to see the day when the law will grant equal civil liberty to all the inhabitants of the same empire, as God accords the freedom of the will, without distinction, to the dwellers upon earth.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835
Still, as the persevering enemy of despotism everywhere, and under all its forms, I am pained and astonished by the fact that the freest people in the world is, at the present time, almost the only one among civilized and Christian nations which yet maintains personal servitude; and this while serfdom itself is about disappearing, where it has not already disappeared, from the most degraded nations of Europe.
An old and sincere friend of America, I am uneasy at seeing Slavery retard her progress, tarnish her glory, furnish arms to her detractors, compromise the future career of the Union which is the guaranty of her safety and greatness, and point out beforehand to her, to all her enemies, the spot where they are to strike. As a man, too, I am moved at the spectacle of man's degradation by man, and I hope to see the day when the law will grant equal civil liberty to all the inhabitants of the same empire, as God accords the freedom of the will, without distinction, to the dwellers upon earth.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835
Nov 28, 2007
Alexis de Tocqueville on propaganda
Generally speaking, only simple conceptions can grip the mind of a nation. An idea that is clear and precise even though false will always have greater power in the world than an idea that is true but complex.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835-1840)
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835-1840)
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