In Tocqueville’s section “Situation of the Black population in the United States, and Dangers with which its Presence Threatens the Whites” he speaks about slavery within America and makes very insightfull predictions into the ways in which slavery both will impact the future of the country and how slavery will change as time passes. Tocqueville explains how since slavery has been such a large part of American culture and society, that although Slavery may cease to exist at some point within America its effects on American culture are nearly permenant. He continues to speak about how Slavery has impacted the South and the North in different ways and that if slavery ever ceases to exist it will impact both regions to different extents. Seeing as there are many prejudices still common within America today, was Tocqueville right in saying that Slavery will forever have a continous impact and involvement in American society? Will there be a time in which these effects are no longer “immovable” within American culture? Tocqueville’s comments on the Black population in America were very insightful and prompt the question of how America can move past the horrible prejudeces that were ingraied into society by the institution of slavery.
Tag: Tocqueville
In the chapter “The Present and Probable Future Condition of the Indian Tribes that Inhabit the Territory Possessed by the Union” Tocqueville discusses the plight of the American Indians and makes a prediction about their eventual fate. He writes that they have two choices, to civilize or be destroyed, and goes on to articulate how the Native American spirit has been shaped by their cultural experience such that deciding to civilize (according to the European definition of the term) would be a painful decision for them to make.
When reading what Tocqueville was writing about in 1835, I began to wonder what he would think about the plight of Native Americans today. The American political dialogue does not often go near the subject of Native Americans unless they become relevant to a more pertinent issue, such as oil pipelines and climate change. I, however, believe that the condition of Native Americans is deserved of much more attention from both sides of the aisle.
It is well known that Native Americans have higher rates of poverty, alcoholism, and suicide than the rest of the population. The government-run schools provided for them on their reservations are very low quality. Native Americans also have the lowest labor participation rate out of any ethnic group in the country.
Everyone can see the problem, but the solution is where politics enters the fray. I believe that one of the first steps towards ameliorating the heartbreaking condition of the Native Americans would be to allow them to own their land. Because they do not, it is very hard for Native Americans to get business and personal loans because they do not have their land to offer as collateral. Furthermore, many reservations are in natural resource-rich areas of the country; giving the people property rights could bring income and groundbreaking social change into these struggling communities.
I think Tocqueville’s worst prediction, that the Native Americans would cease to exist as a group, has thankfully not been carried out. Through the public policy choices we make as a country, we can prevent it from ever happening.
Democracy in America was written in 1835, before philosophies such as Marxism, Nihilism, Scientific Materialism, biological determinism/sociobiology, moral relativism, moral subjectivism, began to become prominent influences in shaping people’s worldviews from the mid-late 1800s about to the present. A recent WSJ poll found that only 30% of Gen Z and Millenials describe religion and belief in God as important values, demonstrating just how far most of us are from how Tocqueville would have understood reality.
*article link WSJ Poll Article
The reading on the Origins of America caught my attention because it demonstrates an “Old World” perspective on how the world came to be. Centuries of scientific materialism have made the idea of divine providence being at work in nature seem almost laughable in the eyes of many modern people. Couple this with the understanding that people 150+ years ago comprehended so little about the physical sciences compared to where we are today and the argument for why a modern man may scoff at an 1800s man’s description of geography and natural history. I believe that this passage is noteworthy because it is a great example of how Toqueville’s discussion of American geography flies in the face of this modern interpretation.
Tocqueville demonstrates his true understanding of this country’s physical reality by explaining it proficiently and concisely. He, a Frenchman, knows America’s geography better than any American I know personally, even though any of us could be on Google Earth in a matter of seconds and have access to more and better information than Tocqueville could have ever dreamed of.
Another way he demonstrates his understanding of the natural world is through accurate and informed descriptions of the forces of nature at play. He mentions the “convulsions of the globe” that formed the Mississippi and the effect of frequent flooding on Northeastern soil as it relates to agriculture. There are many other examples of similar analysis throughout the text as well.
Yet, right after he discusses the Mississippi river, he writes “the valley of the Mississippi is, on the whole, the most magnificent dwelling-place prepared by God for man’s abode.” A phrase like this would stop a secular-modern-materialist person in their tracks. To them, the ideas of the valley of the Mississippi was formed by geological forces, not God. What they would find truly baffling is that Tocqueville’s position is not that they were not formed by natural forces. He fully acknowledges that and understands it as well as anyone with 1800s science can. What I believe to be most confounding to a secular modern thinker is that Tocqueville offers both explanations, that it was formed by natural forces and it was formed by God. He is saying that it was God’s intention for the valley to be this way, and natural forces were the means he used to make it so.
In the modern secular paradigm, a notion such as this causes countless philosophical problems and is utterly irreconcilable with the secular materialist view of reality. What boggles my mind is that in 1835 when this was written, there was hardly a question about it. And I don’t mean a question about whether God intended the Mississippi valley for the American people or for the native Americans or for some other nationality, I mean no one would question that natural forces are controlled in some part by God to accomplish his ends.
To any religious members of the class, maybe this passage did not stand out to you in this way, but for any agnostic or atheist or even polytheists reading this, did this stand out to you like it did to me? Did you find the same problems with it that I did, or find something completely different? If your interested in responding to my post, I’d be happy to discuss this topic more.
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.