Category: Reading and Film Presentations and Discussion

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Reading and Film Presentations and Discussion

The Exterior Form of North America

Tocqueville starts by vividly describing the landscape of the Americas. He uses metaphorical and descriptive language to paint a picture of the landscape that is contained within the two continents. Tocquville characterizes each portion of America based on its physical appearance and aspects of its environment. The northern half of America he describes as gloomy and quite different from the flowery colourful scenery, one will experience in the southern parts of America. As he continues to describe portions of the continent he starts to become focused on the Mississippi river and talk on how it appears that life spreads out from the consistent flow of water that runs through this river. Tocqueville even makes an insightful judgement when he describes how the future of America appears to be moving westward toward the less abrasive land.

After describing the landscape which Tocqueville considers created perfectly fit for man he goes on to talk about the indigenous peoples of North America. Tocqueville describes them as unique and like no one has witnessed before. He continues to point out aspects of their lives which he believes have a relation to the environment in which they inhabit. When speaking about the Indigenus people he says “They have multiplied freely in the midsts of their deserts…”. I believe that Tocqueville connects the freedom that the American landscape provides to how he believes the Indigenous people act. He continues to say that the Indigenous people are not aware of the modern “civilized” aspects of society and that they were not truly possessing the American land. Tocqueville ends his piece by saying that the Indigenous people were not truly owners of the land they lived on and instead were simply holding the place until people who would properly make use of the land came along. Was Tocqueville justifying the extraction of Indigenous American groups from the land they were inhabiting? Did Tocqueville simply believe that the Indigenous people did not grasp the opportunities available to them? And how do Tocqueville’s ideas on the Indigenus people of North America represent the treatment that they experienced during the country’s founding?

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Reading and Film Presentations and Discussion

“Social Condition of the Anglo-Americans” Expository

Tocqueville begins this section by underscoring how important a people’s social condition is to the development of their society. He then goes on to elaborately describe the social condition of America during its development, what traits were embued then, and how those traits are evermore present in the current day (1835 of course.) 

The fact that America has a democratic society is paramount and serves as the justification for all of his claims about the characteristics of the American people. The most significant “foot in the door” for democracy is the nature of the U.S’s inheritance laws. Tocqueville explains that the law of primogeniture (land passed down to eldest son) encourages the development of large landed estates and eventually aristocracy. America’s inheritance law, that property be split equally between children, serves two practical functions that are essential to the development of democracy. Firstly, they prevent the development of massive estates and the emergence of a landed elite class, and secondly, they affect the minds of people with family by severing the intimate tie between family and estate. Both of these systems are self-perpetuating and quickly become unstoppable, and America has chosen the one that inevitably lead to a democracy, the likes of which the world has never seen. 

What I believe is most significant about this expert is probably 100 different things. I am referring specifically to Tocqueville’s multitudinous characteristics of the American people. Almost all of his quotes are directly relevant to the political dialogue of today, and each is so significant I bet you could devote a lecture series or a whole class to it. I am going to place some examples of this below. 

 “But wealth circulates with inconceivable rapidity, and experience shows that it is rare to find two succeeding generations in the full enjoyment of it.”

“It is not only the fortunes of men that are equal in America; even their acquirements partake in some degree of the same uniformity.”

“In America most of the rich men were formerly poor; most of those who now enjoy leisure were absorbed in business during their youth; the consequence of this is that when they might have had a taste for study, they had no time for it, and when the time is at their disposal, they have no longer the inclination.”

“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.”

There are dozens more I could have chosen, and keep in mind this excerpt is but one or two pages in a 900+ page book. Tocqueville has something to say about every conceivable element of American politics and politics/society/humanity generally, and I believe that most of the time, he is correct. 

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Reading and Film Presentations and Discussion

Alexis de Tocqueville’s “How Equality Suggests to the Americans the Idea of the Indefinite Perfectability of Man”

The piece written by Alexis de Tocqueville makes a series of novel judgements regarding the evolution of thoughts and ideas in American society. Tocqueville explains that we are constantly modifying and improving upon ideas, as this sets us apart from so called “brutes”. This idea that we are capable of improvement and getting better is what sets humans apart from the rest, and Tocqueville believes that this idea is as old as time. Despite this, Tocqueville states that the idea of equality has changed the idea of constant improvement and perfection that is inherent in humans. It allows society as a whole to constantly improve and strive to be better together. 

            Tocqueville arrives at the idea that the aristocratic system puts everyone into class according to “rank, profession, or birth” and this in turn has a profound effect on the inherent human condition to improve and advance. Once a person is put into a lower class from the moment they are born, this impairs their ability to want to improve and perfect their life. Tocqueville feels that the aristocratic system sets limits of sort that allow people to perceive improvement, but they do not strive to set new limits and strive for change. 

            Further, Tocqueville asserts that once people are taken out of castes or classes, they are almost liberated and are able to seek change and buy into the idea that the ultimate good has not been achieved. They continue to seek and seek this intangible idea of perfection and are never satisfied with the status quo. Tocqueville paints an extremely interesting picture in the piece while advocating for democracy. I pose the following questions: how prevalent is this is modern society? Despite us living in a rather democratic country, to what extent are people put into certain social classes that do not allow them to advance and strive for change for the better? Would a completely democratic society be viable in America today?

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Alexis de Tocqueville- Bednarz Expository

Alexis de Tocqueville talks about man having no where to go beside the path of their parents, that people are born into who they are and cannot stray from that path, they have no control over their destiny. I find it also very interesting that he mentions that the aristocrats of the society understand that man can change and mold himself into whatever they want, but they do not allow  the lower classes to do so, by assigning classes and ranks that are given for life and for their future generations.  Alexis says that one can improve in their way of life but cannot stray from it. 

              This falsity is then followed by the belief that these members of the lower classes have already achieved their peak and cannot reach any higher on the ladder of success.  They become content and thusly even tell their children, as society does, that they cannot become anything that they not already are.

              Alexis then goes on to state that when the classes of society are removed man strives for growth in his own personal life.  He realizes that there is no way to distinguish himself from others besides the materialistic items that he has accumulated.  When there is no bar set for him to reach, he is always searching for the next rung on the ladder to get closer to the non-existent ceiling of life.

              I believe that the story of the sailor, at the end of the piece, relates directly to the greedy perception of man today.  This is why car companies are always coming out with new models.  If the previous year’s model was the “best” “most luxurious” “most advanced” car they ever made.  It is because man’s realization of progress and success has him wanting better than he already has.

Alexis de Tocqueville has shined light on the issues of the perfection of man.  He demonstrates that once in his sights man will not stop looking for the next peak to climb, whether it be social or economic.  Now that man has broken from the social constructs of defined classes, he is able to determine his own fate.                                                                                             

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