Difference between revisions of "Equality of Condition"

Equality of Condition In his book "Democracy in America", Alexis de Tocqueville's first words are: "Among the new objects that attracted my attention . . in the United States, none struck my eye more vividly than the equality of conditions. I discovered without difficulty the enormous influence that this primary fact exerts on the course of society; it gives a certain direction to public spirit, a certain turn to the laws, new maxims to those who govern, and particular habits to the governed. . . . it creates opinions, gives birth to sentiments, suggests usages, and modifies everything it does not produce. . . . .

"Then I brought my thinking back to our hemisphere, and . . . distinguished something in it analogous to the spectacle the New World offered me. I saw the equality of conditions that, without having reached its extreme limits as it had in the United States, was approaching them more each day; and the same democracy reigning in American societies appeared to me to be advancing rapidly toward power in Europe. . . .

"A great democratic revolution is taking place among us: all see it, but all do not judge it in the same manner. Some . . . still hope to be able to stop it; whereas others judge it irresistible because to them it seems the most continuous, the oldest, and the most permanent fact known in history."

What insight! 2014/03/06 User:Jeff