Website review: The New York Times & Log In
Don-Keehotay discovered this in Multimedia
•2 reviews since Jan 24, 2006
tocqueville
•nytimes.com/2006/01/23/opinion/23mon3.html
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Don-Keehotay discovered 30 months ago- Interesting article about the concept of the "tyrrany of the majority" -- when democracy goes horribly wrong. I don't think Tocqueville ever imagined an America where we'd have the *appearance* of democracy but not the reality.
- saltwatermatt rated 30 months ago
- Quoting from Adam Cohen's article (thanks http://don-keehotay.stumbleupon.com/): "Tocqueville would not have been distracted by all the talk that warrantless wiretaps, indefinite detainment of enemy combatants and other civil liberties incursions are serving the cause of freedom. He understood that the newest incarnation of despotism was likely to be ushered in by the "avowed lover of liberty" who is a "hidden servant of tyranny." Nor, though, would he be likely to despair. One reason "Democracy in America" has remained so popular is that despite his fears, Tocqueville remained nervously optimistic about democracy. He knew that the kind of equality that had taken hold in America could lead to tyranny, but he also believed that it gave people a "taste for free institutions," which would lead them to resist. Equality "insinuates deep into the heart and mind of every man some vague notion and some instinctive inclination toward political freedom," he insisted, "thereby preparing the antidote for the ill which it has produced."" I remember having Tocqueville on my tutorial reading list for a great Monash Uni politics subject "America: Decay of the liberal dream?". Having now read this great piece from the New York Times I wish I'd done that reading now! Very pertinent for our times one and a half centuries later!
