Give me Liberty

 

After perusing some of my favorite quotes from a wise, long-dead white man, I am certain that we are on a path set for us not by our current political leaders, but by our collective, fallible human nature.  Otherwise, how could Alexis de Tocqueville know almost 200 years ago how American liberty would be struggling in 2021?  We seem to be heading toward this perilous fate at an ever more rapid pace.  Will Americans wake up to the continuing loss of their individual liberty in time to revive it?  Or will we see some form of authoritarian bureaucracy (soft or hard tyranny) controlling our lives?    

Use the link below to read "Democracy in America" Volumes 1 and 2 in PDF format from Penn State.  

Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville  (1835)

On Human Nature or Why Education in the Tenets of Liberty is Essential

“When the taste for physical gratifications among them has grown more rapidly than their education . . . the time will come when men are carried away and lose all self-restraint . . . . It is not necessary to do violence to such a people in order to strip them of the rights they enjoy; they themselves willingly loosen their hold. . . . they neglect their chief business which is to remain their own masters.” 
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America Volume 2

On Individual "Rights" 

“It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the 'right' to education, the 'right' to health care, the 'right' to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle.”    ― Alexis de Tocqueville

On Equality

“Americans are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.” 
― Alexis de Tocqueville

Democracy vs Socialism

“Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”     ― Alexis de Tocqueville

It's All OK - Until They Come For My Rights

“It is above all in the present democratic age that the true friends of liberty and human grandeur must remain constantly vigilant and ready to prevent the social power from lightly sacrificing the particular rights of a few individuals to the general execution of its designs. In such times there is no citizen so obscure that it is not very dangerous to allow him to be oppressed, and there are no individual rights so unimportant that they can be sacrificed to arbitrariness with impunity.” 
― Alexis de Tocqueville

Maintaining Political Power

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.” 
― Alexis de Tocqueville