A Twitter thread by Jash Dholani
Aug 01, 2022 · 3 mins read
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Part 1
In his magnum opus Democracy In America (1835), Tocqueville saw the future coming
He predicted the growth of the nanny state, our atomized lives, and Rupi Kaur’s poetry (literally)
On his 217th birth anniversary
Let’s look at 10 ideas from this classic🧵👇🏻
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1/ The lust for equality overpowers the love for freedom:
“Democratic communities have a natural taste for freedom…But for equality, their passion is ardent, insatiable: they call for equality in freedom; and if they cannot obtain that, they still call for equality in slavery.”
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2/ Let’s be clear: Democracy is mid
Tocqueville: “If a democratic society displays less brilliance than an aristocracy, there will also be less wretchedness; the sciences will be on a smaller scale but ignorance will be less common; you will notice more vices and fewer crimes.”
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3/ Tocqueville on how democracy gave us Rupi Kaur:
“Democratic literature will never exhibit the order, skill, art of aristocratic literature; formal qualities will be neglected or actually despised. The style will be strange, incorrect, loose, and almost always strong & bold.”
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4/ Tocqueville on why you can only let people free IF they’re religious:
“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot”
Political rules can only be relaxed if moral rules are “strengthened”
People can only be “their own masters” once they’re “submissive to the Deity”
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5/ Democracy is a force of atomization: it disconnects a man not just from “his ancestors” but also his descendants and peers
Tocqueville:
“Each man is for ever thrown back on himself alone, and there is danger that he may be shut up in the solitude of his own heart.”
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6/ Tocqueville on the growth of the nanny state:
“The government provides for security, supplies necessities, facilitates pleasures, directs industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides inheritances - what remains, but to spare people...the trouble of living?”
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7/ Life today punctures a thousand small holes in us, leaks our energies, makes great tasks impossible:
“What chiefly diverts the men of democracies from lofty ambition is not the scantiness of their fortunes, but the vehemence of the exertions they daily make to improve them.”
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8/ The modern govt of bureaucrats & managers covers “society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform”
In such a world, the “most original minds and the most energetic characters” cannot thrive
Tocqueville: “The will of man is not shattered, but softened.”
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9/ Since opinionated men of power are a political nuisance, the state “extinguishes and stupefies” their energies
Tocqueville:
“The men are seldom forced to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting.”
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