Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
(Reading: Democracy in America)
Intro
The lack of actual freedom in the paradise of freedom
- “I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.” (Book 1, 263)
- “But in a nation where democratic institutions exist, organized like those of the United States, there is but one authority, one element of strength and success, with nothing beyond it.” (book 1, 263)
Egality vs. Egalitarianism
- “Whenever social conditions are equal, public opinion presses with enormous weight upon the minds of each individual; it surrounds, directs, and oppresses him; and this arises from the very constitution of society much more than from its political laws … The multitude requires no laws to coerce those who do not think like themselves: public disapprobation is enough; a sense of their loneliness and impotence overtakes them and drives them to despair.” (Book 2, 261)
Quantity vs Quality
- “The contrary takes place in ages of equality. The nearer the citizens are drawn to the common level of an equal and similar condition, the less prone does each man become to place implicit faith in a certain man or a certain class of men. But his readiness to believe the multitude increases, and opinion is more than ever mistress of the world … At periods of equality, men have no faith in one another, by reason of their common unbounded confidence in the judgment of the public; for it would seem probable that, as they are all endowed with equal means of judging, the greater truth should be the greater number.” (Book 2 9-10)
The Benefits of Conformity
- “He adopts its (public opinion’s) likings and its animosities, he anticipates its wishes, he forestalls its complaints, he yields to its idlest cravings.” (Book 1, 138)
- “In the United States the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.” (Book 2, 10)
The Ambivalence of Equality
- “When the inhabitant of a democratic country compares himself with all those about him, he feels with pride that he is equal of nay one of them; but when he comes to survey the totality of his fellows and to place himself in contrast with so huge a body, he is instantly overwhelmed by the sense of his own insignificance and weakness. The same equality that renders him independent of each of his fellow citizens, taken severally, exposes him alone and unprotected to the influence of the great number.” (Book 2, 10)
The Tyranny of Public Opinion
- “There is, and I cannot repeat it too often, there is here matter for profound reflection to those who look on freedom of thought as a holy thing, and who hate not only the despot but despotism. For myself, when I feel the hand of power lie heavy on my brow, I care but little to know who oppresses me; and I am not the more disposed to pass beneath the yoke, because it is held out to me by the arms of millions of men.” (Book 2, 58)