*** REQUIRES COMMENTS & Qs ***
1. Active Reading per syllabus instructions
2. Five comments and/or Qs here. You can either comment or question, doesn’t matter.
3. Hartz reading attached to The Man handout, but please respond to Hartz on separate blog post.
Da Man!
1. What do Tocqueville’s ideas show about how the past impacts the present?
2. What is the importance of nations reaching their predetermined “destinies”?
3. Is there always a connecting factor between opposing factions?
4. How is superiority within a social hierarchy established?
5. Is love or money more powerful?
1. Do the circumstances of origin necessarily directly correlate towards a nations future success? Can successful nations be conceived without equality? Wouldn’t this lend for a less radical revolution, or does the principle need to be established in the founding for it to have such weight?
2. How does the presence of religion in government affect the “destinies of certain nations which seem borne on by an unknown force to ends of which they themselves are ignorant” ?
3. How does language impact the aim of leaders/principles/ choices in circumstance? How is language used by the elites as a political barrier? How is it used by the non-elite as a way of dissent? or do the non-elites find other methods of dissent more effective?
4. Since property is equal to liberty, is an equal division of property necessary for equal liberties?
5. If we as Americans keep striving for equality, at what point will it infringe on our liberty? Is there a disconnect in American ideals between equality in theory vs. equality in circumstance?
1. Character is formed from the very beginning; every single experience has the potential to impact your perception of the world, and thus has the ability to change your life as a whole.
2. If we could alter the past experiences of individuals or nations, would their course of history change, or are some things just inevitable?
3. Did America adopt self-rule simply because we had never had another form of government to sway our ideals? If we had a previous governmental system that was effective, would self-rule have occurred?
4. Does the notion of having power and being superior to others drive our desire to keep property from being permanently equal, or do we like the idea of being able to advance and change within our society?
5. “To conceive of men remaining forever unequal upon a single point, yet equal on all others is impossible”. But does equality exist on all other planes? Is it truly only the political world that is unequal? What about the social inequalities faced by slaves and women?
1)Because America was initially colonized by a empire of the western world does that mean that the prejudices, the habits, the ruling passions and the “national character” was created from the western world or did these marks of origin begin to develop the moment that the colonists became independent from British ruling?
2)What does it mean by, “[a]nd when they at length contemplated their origin, time had already obscured it, or ignorance and pride adorned it with (truth-concealing fables).”?
3)What consequences has the misuse of communication or the contrasting languages from immigration brought to the development of America’s social world?
4)How did the British empire decide why, who and what area a certain person would own property?
5)How and why does an illusion of “self-love” extracts “family pride”?
1. Tocqueville really is “The Man”
2.What happens when the division of land is too small?
3.In the last sentence it says men in the end must be equal to all, are all men equal with such differences in today’s society?
4.What exactly are hitherto facts?
5. So at the origin of everything, effects the future something?
1. When first explaining a man’s upbiringing, what does it mean that he is studied?
2. I disagree with Tocqueville on page 4 where he states that America was the only country where we can witness a tranquil growth of society. Considering all the wars and arguments we have had to overcome and are still going through how can we say that it was “tranquil?”
3. Refering back to the previous question, would we consider America to be fully developed society now? Or are there more we can grow from?
4. On page 5, Tocqueville says that the emigrants did not feel superiority over the other, then how is it that the emigrants as a group developed a feeling of superiority over the Native Americans as a group?
5. Is equality attainable in politics?
Tocqueville has a pretty agreeable point of view on some things, but some of his ideas and assumptions are a little off.
First off, Tocqueville says that “not an opinion, not a custom, not a law….. not an event, is upon record which the origin of that (American) people will not explain”. This statement bothers me, because it seems as if it is too large of a generalization. There are too many thoughts, laws, customs, and events in American history to be able to definitely say that there are none that cannot be explained by the origin of the American people.
Next, Tocqueville said that the colonists leaving the mother country had no notion of superiority over one another. I don’t think this is true. There were indentured servants, as well as slaves, who made up the lower class, and were just under the middle class, who came to create a new life away from England. These people were under the Upper Class, the businessmen who came to America to start businesses and collect resources. The upper class didn’t necessarily cut ties with their mother countries, and were the people who were at the forefront of trade in the new world.
Tocqueville also says that family pride is becoming less and less of a thing in America. This, again, isn’t necessarily true. Business owners hire their children or relatives to keep their family name going, and eventually pass the business off to their children, who hand the business off to their children, keeping the family legacy going for as long as the business is around.
Finally, Tocqueville says that “To conceive of men remaining forever unequal upon a single point, yet equal on all others, is impossible; they must come in the end to be equal upon all…(cut off)” Tocqueville is completely correct in his first line, as men will never be able to only be unequal upon one point. However, man will never be able to be equal on all points either; there will always be the rich and poor, and even if the financial differences between people was somehow eliminated, there would still be people physically stronger than others, people who are smarter than others, and people who have better social skills than others.
One point of Tocqueville’s is completely true. Tocqueville says “The tie of language is, perhaps, the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind”. Tocqueville nails this statement, and there is much historical proof to back him up. For example, when Greece needed to form the Delian League to defend their city states from Persia, they were able to do this because they all had the same language.
Although Tocqueville has some points that I disagree with, most of his other points are very well thought out, and apply to American Civilization even today, two centuries after Tocqueville’s thoughts were published.
1. Will it truly ever be possible to completely understand someone and their ideas, if we cannot see how they were brought up and the environment that contributed to their thinking process?
2. How and when did we lose the identity or ability that Tocqueville describes as Americans being able to explain any custom or law or event that is part of their history? (Mainly referring to the national pride that Americans tend to have now, just without any reason for it other than being born in ‘Murica).
3. Perhaps America was never truly a “melting pot” but only a place that tolerated diversity. Has a pluralistic society in America been helpful to the structure (not culture) if Tocqueville argues that a huge advantage America had was the commonality between the emigrants?
4. Could we have a aristocracy in the United States if the wealthy 1% control the media, production, land, and resources to elect politicians?
5. Is it true to say that wealth circulates throughout the United States, and it is hard to find a family with succeeding generations of enjoyed wealth (Rockefellers, Mars, Cargills, Cox, etc.)?
1) I like Tocqueville’s argument in the beginning paragraph. If i’m not mistaken, he is trying to say that humans are all born equal, however, it is the environmental factors around them that shape their outlook on life.
2) I think that his view that the origins of a nation must be understood in order to understand the rules and social conditions of that nation is mostly correct given certain contexts.
3) why is America the only nation where we can see its origins?
4) I agree with him that language is one of the biggest things that can unite humans.
5) Why does Tocqueville think that equal opportunity is only possible in America?
Page 4 Question 1
How are the growth of nations similar to the growth and maturation of a child? What is Tocqueville referring to when he says “the natural and tranquil growth of society”? Why is America the only country in which its maturation can be traced and studied?
Page 5 Question 2
If America based their government on passed republic’s and democracies; then why does Tocqueville state that the American Union differs from the said governments in many respects?
Page 5 Question 3
On page 5 is Tocqueville saying that by the European countries simply establishing colonies in a forge in land, they were nominally granting autonomy to said nations and that eventually if said colonies felt their autonomy threatened they would rebel (as did the United States)? If so, I would agree with this point and further it by pointing out modern countries who had gained their independence through rebellion as a result of having their autonomy threatened (for example India).
Page 5 Question 4
At the end of page 5, when Tocqueville writes about aristocracy, property and inheritance; is he trying to say that America has separated herself from other countries in part that the government prevents an aristocracy through the passing and divisions of land? If so, is this point further strengthened when Tocqueville states “A nation can present immense fortunes and extreme wretchedness; but unless those fortunes are terrestrial, there is no true aristocracy, but simply the class of the rich and that of the poor…”. Does Tocqueville believe this is good (the absence of an aristocracy? Is this statement meant to be taken literally, figuratively or both?
Page 6 Question 5
On page 5 Tocqueville initially describes America as if it were a Utopia. If he feels this way how can he argue that there is political consequences to the American system? Why does he state that equality making its way to the political world is a bad (was this written while slavery was still legal in the United States)?
Comments on Tocqueville
I like how Tocqueville states he knows of no country with a lack of love for money. Is there anything I missed, feel like I did not fully understand Tocqueville’s message.
1. Are all establishments destined to fail, since the beliefs they are founded on are lost from generation to generation?
2. Since most Americans have become ignorant of the course their nation is following, is their nation destined to fail?
3. If all Americas at the time of America’s founding had a say in forming the government and not just the cabal of what has today become known as the Founding Fathers, what would the setup of our government look like today?
4. How did the immigrants of the 19th and 20th centuries change the way America’s government is run?
5. Since Americans will never become equal in all ways, how can the balance of unequality be maintained to keep America as we know it alive?
1. Why does Tocqueville think its so important to watch, pay attention, and care to a child’s early years?
2. Why is America the only country “in which it has been possible to witness the natural and tranwuil growth of society, and where the influence exercised on the future condition of states bu their origin is clearly distinguishable?”
3. What is the complexity that Tocqueville is referring to when he says that America’s origin of that people will not be explained?
4. What made Tocqueville think/ponder about everything he questions, for example, America’s origin?
5. What separates America from the European colonies?
6. Tocqueville is DA MAN
Does Tocqueville believe we should examine a child at birth so that we will be able to know how and where the child got those habits from when their adults?
If when children are born they keep “marks of their origin” and you can see it in the entire man, what is America’s origin that they have kept from since the origin until now?
How and why is America the “ONLY country in which it has been possible to witness the natural and tranquil growth of society?”
Does “not an opinion, not a custom, not a law, I may even say not an event it upon record which the origin of that people will not explain” mean that America is holding and focusing too much on the past?
Did Tocqueville predict that their would be a civil war over slavery because he seemed to have been implying it when he said, “It is impossible to believe that equality will not eventually find its way into the political world, as it does everywhere else. To conceive of men remaining forever unequal upon a single point, yet equal on all others, is impossible; they must come in the end to be equal upon all”?
(To me he was saying that it was impossible to say that every man was equal when black men were to be forever unequal because of only one thing which was their skin color; and that eventually they would have to resolve it so that they could be equal on all levels.)
1. What happens if the division of land is not large enough?
2. Why is America’s ‘marks of origin’ so different from that of other colonies that broke away from their founders such as many in South America?
3. Why does Tocqueville think that the roots of America have so many paradoxes?
4. Why is equality of opportunity only possible in America and not other countries with similar roots?
5. Tocqueville says, “The tie of language is, perhaps, the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind”. If this is true, why is America so united when it consists of a melting pot of many different cultures and languages?
1. Are the prejudices produced in our society a matter of passion applied to opinion, or a matter of arrogance of the political strata over the apolitical strata?
2. Why does Tocqueville believe that Democracy drives Aristocracy?
3. Does a man in a democracy ever settle, or are they always in the persuit for something better, the “persuit of happiness.”
4. How were Enlightenment ideals and Tocqueville’s ideas on equality the same?
5. How were Tocqueville’s notions of equality of immigrants contradictory towards slavery in the U.S.?
*pursuit
1. Tocqueville seems to be the man in his knowledge of American Democracy.
2. What has led to “the man” being seen in the cradle of the child? Does he imply that our government is to weak or to slow to process social revolutions?
3. How have “Hitherto Facts” distracted researches?
4. Can equality of opportunity for all really be achieved?
5. What motivates men to purchase large estates over numerous small ones? Would this still be true if more profits would come from the small estates?
Thanks
1. Why does Tocqueville state that “America is the only country in which it has been possible to witness the natural and tranquil growth of society…”? (pg. 4) Is the comparison to other nations the result of the conclusion to that idea?
2. What major factor(s) did Tocqueville see in the property of land, from a political standpoint?
3. How does our inheritance determine the way our future may play out?
4. Could the early distribution of land be co nsideredan early example of gerrymandering?
5. What made Tocqueville see power in land in the first place?
Since Tocqueville believed that a nation was always influenced by the conditions of its birth, how did he respond to the decision of the Founders to include a living constitution?
According to Tocqueville how much of history is influenced by our conditions?
Was there no contingency in the founding of United States?
Why was the idea of property so important to Tocqueville?
Tocqueville argues that equality cannot exist when Americans are unequal on different levels. Is this a belief that there can be no socioeconomic gap between Americans or that no greater power can be awarded to the wealthy?