Alexis de Tocqueville observed the American way of life, government and politics when the country was still young in 1835. His observations show that while there are new problems and social issues today, many of them have haunted this country since its early days.
Tocqueville’s observations, in his own words, will be biting and offensive to some Americans, but this is only because the truth in what he says cannot be avoided. He saw a new kind of tyranny rising that was more effective than brute force, a tyranny that went straight to the soul. Tocqueville writes,
“Chains and executioners: such were the crude instruments on which tyranny once relied. But civilization has today brought improvement to everything, even to despotism, which seemed to have nothing left to learn.
Princes made violence a physical thing, but today’s democratic republics have made it as intellectual as the human will it seeks to coerce. Under the absolute government of one man, despotism tried to reach the soul by striking crudely at the body; and the soul, eluding such blows, rose gloriously above it. Tyranny in democratic republics does not proceed in the same way, however. It ignores the body and goes straight for the soul. The master no longer says: You will think as I do or die. He says: You are free not to think as I do. You may keep your life, your property, and everything else. But from this day forth you shall be as a stranger among us. You will retain your civic privileges, but they will be of no use to you… You will remain among men, but you will forfeit your rights to humanity. When you approach your fellow creatures, they will shun you as one who is impure. And even those who believe in your innocence will abandon you, lest they, too, be shunned in turn. Go in peace, I will not take your life, but the life I leave you with is worse than death.”
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Tocqueville describes this tyranny as it expressed itself in America during his day,
“In America, the majority erects a formidable barrier around thought. Within the limits thus laid down, the writer is free, but woe unto him who dares to venture beyond those limits… He has no chance of a political career, for he has offended the only power capable of opening the way to one… In the end, he gives in, he bends under the burden of such unremitting effort and retreats into silence, as if he felt remorse for having spoken the truth.”
One thing has remained the same throughout history; The corruptive nature of tyrannical power and its effects on those who wield it as well as those who submit to it. Tocqueville saw different types of people, those who submit to tyranny out of weakness, habit, ignorance, or love of power.
“In absolute governments, the high nobles who surround the throne flatter the passions of the master and voluntarily bend to his whims. But the masses of the nation are not inclined toward servitude; often they submit out of weakness, habit, or ignorance, and occasionally out of love for royalty or the king. It is not unknown for a people to take pleasure and pride of a sort of sacrificing their will to that of the prince, thereby marking a kind of independence of soul in the very act of obedience. In such nations degradation is far less common than misery. There is a great difference, moreover, between doing what one does not approve of and pretending to approve of what one does: one is the attitude of a man who is weak, the other a habit that only a lackey would acquire.”
Tocqueville also saw a stark difference between the leaders in America and the people.
“I have heard Americans speak of their homeland. I have met with true patriotism among the people; I have often searched for it in vain among their leaders. This fact is easily understood by analogy: despotism corrupts the person who submits to it far more than the person who imposes it. In absolute monarchies, the king often has great virtues, but the courtiers are always vile.”
Were all Americans always so malleable? Tocqueville describes a unique character that filled the souls of Americans in earlier days.
“When the American Revolution declared itself, remarkable men came forward in droves. In those days, public opinion gave direction to their wills but did not tyrannize them. The famous men of the day freely took part in the intellectual movement of their time yet possessed a grandeur all their own. Their brilliance, rather than being borrowed from the nation, spilled over onto it.”
The establishment media has served, among other things destructive to our liberty, to marginalize truth tellers, whistle blowers, and groups who pose a threat to established thought and power. We are to believe that we are alone. No one else feels the way we do, so we are told. Fortunately for us, a variety of developments have effectively broken this mechanism of control for millions. The internet is connecting like minded people world-wide, and the alternative media is exploding.
Bring back the grandeur and independence of thought that once filled this nation. Tyranny has been brought to a science while sophisticated social engineering practices have emerged in the many years after Tocqueville’s writing, but even they cannot take hold of your soul.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Here it is for all of you pining for the old days. The old days and the old ways are the same as the new days and new ways except less so. These words were written in 1835 (a mere 47 years after the Constitution was ratified) and nothing has changed; its just intensified. Which is why saving the old government is a useless endeavor. While the founder’s version of the government has become bastardized and tyrannical it still, in its original form, could have been a seriously flawed system. The catch is that they knew it was possible that their idea of government was unsustainable and merely offered American Government v. 1.0. Hence the Thomas Jefferson statement, “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government…” ITS TIME TO SWITCH FROM CENTRALLY SOURCED OPERATING SYSTEM TO AN OPEN SOURCE OPERATING SYSTEM. (see Microsoft v. Linux)
September 15th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Excellent statement Nothing New Under the Sun! Couldn’t have said it better myself!
September 15th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Nothing but new, we are SUPPOSED to have an “open source operating system” right NOW.
Government is SUPPOSED to be transparent.
The problem is, we live in a culture that has been transformed over the years to be either cynical, evil, or ignorant.
The people used to be fairly well educated and culturally strong. They had a sense of identity and a sense of WHO we fought to obtain our freedom in this country.
We fought EMPIRE. The EMPIRE of Europe. The EMPIRE of the British East India Company.
We have FORGOTTEN where we came from. We did not get to where we are today by fighting the concept of GOVERNMENT. GOVERNMENT is not the bad guy. Government has been made to look like the bad guy because it has the “power”.
The reality is that the government does NOT have the “power”. THOSE WHO CREATE MONEY HAVE THE POWER.
The government is SUPPOSED to create its own money, but obviously this is no longer the case. The Oligarchs have taken this FUNDAMENTAL power from us. This has CRIPPLED the “power” of government, which means that BEHIND THE SCENES you have EVIL people who tell the government official what to do.
They DO give you a choice, but the “choice” must be within the boundaries of what they say. All of these boundaries are designed to funnel the world towards global fascism.
In other words, if someone has you buy the balls and tells you to bark like a dog, you bark like a dog. Sure, its your “decision”, but in reality it was a TAINTED decision. You made the decision because you were not willing to deal with the consequences of disobeying the command. Now, they might give you complete “freedom” to choose WHAT TYPE of dog you wish to sound like. This is also you “free choice”.
People looking at this system from the outside see Democrats and Republicans, and they see some very big differences on certain issues, which of course there ARE. BUT, on the most CRITICAL issues (financial/trade) they are EXACTLY the same.
They call it spreading the “Eagles of Freedom”, when in the reality they are spreading the Central Banks of FASCISM. Some politicians are unfortunately stupid enough to believe that these bankers policies are being committed for the PEOPLE. The reality is that they are being committed for the BANKERS.
If it happens to help the people (which it does not) it is completely and totally INCIDENTAL.
http://www.larouchepac.com/
September 15th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
“All we’re doing is taking a drink and going to sleep.” Jim Jones
FREE AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY
September 16th, 2008 at 2:48 am
@3 Paulson, erm we do have a totally open source operating system right now, it’s known as Linux or GNU/Linux
September 16th, 2008 at 6:49 am
@ #5 and #6, I don’t think he meant software. I think he meant a transparent (open-source) system of government, specifically financial control.
And stop being paranoid, most of my comments never appear instantly either. And if you’re using tor and privoxy, I hope you’re turning off java/javascript and cookies.
September 16th, 2008 at 6:50 am
I also would suggest Ubuntu
September 16th, 2008 at 7:20 am
Breathe new life into our democracy…elect the same people back into office…over and over again.
September 16th, 2008 at 7:36 am
“Paulson is an Idiot” – I agree with you with regard to central banking. This oligarchy, however, is made up of more then financial institutions. It is made up of all companies that control commodities and the distribution of those commodities. Every war, since the beginning of time, has either been a war over natural resources (commodities) and/or centralizing power. Government, in today’s America, is merely an instrument of these oligarchy.
I must respectfully disagree with your statements, “We have FORGOTTEN where we came from. We did not get to where we are today by fighting the concept of GOVERNMENT. GOVERNMENT is not the bad guy.” The fact is that we our country was built on fighting the concept of government. We were built on the concept that government IS the bad guy. Maybe if we continued to fight the concept of government we would not be where we are today.
My idea of an Open Source system is but one idea of a new type of government. I would love to hear different ideas on the subject. It would take a tremendous amount of time and energy to try to take the existing government and turn the clock backwards. Its unfeasible and unreliable. It would be much easier and far more productive to scrap the entire system and start from scratch.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:21 am
#8 comments used to appear instantly, and now they go into moderation queue, and lots of mine ‘haven’t made it’, somehow, even 16 hours later
September 16th, 2008 at 10:28 am
“The People” shall remain free to the extent that they are virtuous. Tyrannizing a virtuous people is impossible. Killing their bodies is possible, torturing them is possible, doing them evil is possible, but bending them to an evil will is impossible. Under all circumstances, comfortable or hard, the virtuous are free. Is it any wonder that aspiring tyrants must first corrupt their prey?
September 16th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Nice to see an intelligently written piece on one of the great thinkers of the 19th century. John Lukacs (who is speaking tonight in the Philadelphia area on Tocqueville) thinks that T. is the equivalent of Plato and Aristotle for the “democratic ages.” My favorite Tocqueville
quote: “I know of no nation with less liberty of thought than America.”