Give Us A Leader!
When Alexis De Tocqueville’s Democracy in America was first published in 1835, America was new; America was fresh. The Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, these were still alive in the collective memory of the nation. Seething with energy and promise, the country looked bright-eyed into its future, scanning the horizon for the progress, indeed the perfection, it knew was within its grasp.
Tocqueville, a Frenchman, toured the country with eyes that knew Monarchy, Aristocracy, even dictatorship, but American-style democracy? This was new.
Tocqueville was prescient, and parts of Democracy in America are nothing if not prophecy of what a “democratic social state” like America might expect in its future. Not all he had to say was rosy.
Toward the end of his massive, two-volume, commentary, Tocqueville takes up a particularly chilling theme: the “Kind of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear.” (Volume Two, Part IV, Chapter 6) What follows is a discussion that anticipated Huxley’s Brave New World in outlining a type of tyranny that would rely not on overt totalitarianism, but one that would trap society in a mild, benevolent slavery – a form of slavery that people would come to embrace.
“The emperors [of Antiquity],” he wrote, “wielded vast power without any counterweight…Their tyranny….was violent and limited.” In the early 1800s, traveling across a young United States, Tocqueville saw the potential for a new type of tyranny, a kind of “oppression…unlike any the world has seen before.” What he saw in his mind’s eye was so different, in fact, that he could not even find the right words to express it: “The old words ‘despotism’ and ‘tyranny’ will not do.”
Listen, now, to Tocqueville-the-prophet:
“I see an innumerable host of men, all alike…hastening after petty and vulgar pleasures…Each of them, withdrawn into himself, is virtually a stranger to the fate of all the others… As for…his fellow citizens, he lives alongside them but does not see them. He touches them but does not feel them. He exists only in himself and for himself, and if he still has a family, he no longer has a country.
“Over these men stands an immense [governing] power, which assumes sole responsibility for securing their pleasure and watching over their fate… But…it seeks only to keep them in childhood…It likes citizens to rejoice, provided they think only of rejoicing…It provides for their security, foresees and takes care of their needs, facilitates their pleasures, manages their most important affairs, directs their industry…Why not relieve them of the trouble of thinking and the difficulty of living?”
Tocqueville saw people in conflict with themselves. “They feel the need to be led and the desire to remain free…” They participate just enough, “[emerging] from dependence for a moment to indicate their master and then return to it…” What does it matter who they think will lead them best? Tocqueville put it bluntly: “The nature of the master matters far less than the fact of obedience.”
Tocqueville feared “not that [citizens] will find tyrants among their leaders but rather that they will find protectors.” They will want to be protected.
Tocqueville saw us.
We want protection, safety, comfort. We will emerge from our cocoons in November to pick our master, then retreat. Someone – we hope - will take our problems and make them go away. Someone – not us – will take care of everything. Why not relieve them of the trouble of thinking and the difficulty of living?
And who will it be? Who will fight the ‘War on Terror’ – and keep us safe? Who will launch the next preemptive war – to keep us safe? Who will stop the evildoers? Who will save us from dirty bombs, shoe-bombs, truck bombs, suicide bombs, anthrax, nerve gas, box-cutters, hijackers, extremists, terrorists, dictators, freedom-haters, weapons of mass destruction? Who will lead us? Who will protect us? Who will it be? Oh, who will it be?
Just give us a leader and we’ll be fine. Give us a leader and yea, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil.
Give us a leader, big and strong, to chase our fears away
Give us a leader, quick, quick! Quick!! to come and save the day
Give us a leader - bless him God! - and make our troubles cease
Give us a leader to “stay the course” and even “win the peace”
Bring him soon: a Caesar, Savior, President-King
Bring him soon…so we can go
Back where we belong
Couch-bound and TV-glued to click away our days, Amen.
Tocqueville, a Frenchman, toured the country with eyes that knew Monarchy, Aristocracy, even dictatorship, but American-style democracy? This was new.
Tocqueville was prescient, and parts of Democracy in America are nothing if not prophecy of what a “democratic social state” like America might expect in its future. Not all he had to say was rosy.
Toward the end of his massive, two-volume, commentary, Tocqueville takes up a particularly chilling theme: the “Kind of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear.” (Volume Two, Part IV, Chapter 6) What follows is a discussion that anticipated Huxley’s Brave New World in outlining a type of tyranny that would rely not on overt totalitarianism, but one that would trap society in a mild, benevolent slavery – a form of slavery that people would come to embrace.
“The emperors [of Antiquity],” he wrote, “wielded vast power without any counterweight…Their tyranny….was violent and limited.” In the early 1800s, traveling across a young United States, Tocqueville saw the potential for a new type of tyranny, a kind of “oppression…unlike any the world has seen before.” What he saw in his mind’s eye was so different, in fact, that he could not even find the right words to express it: “The old words ‘despotism’ and ‘tyranny’ will not do.”
Listen, now, to Tocqueville-the-prophet:
“I see an innumerable host of men, all alike…hastening after petty and vulgar pleasures…Each of them, withdrawn into himself, is virtually a stranger to the fate of all the others… As for…his fellow citizens, he lives alongside them but does not see them. He touches them but does not feel them. He exists only in himself and for himself, and if he still has a family, he no longer has a country.
“Over these men stands an immense [governing] power, which assumes sole responsibility for securing their pleasure and watching over their fate… But…it seeks only to keep them in childhood…It likes citizens to rejoice, provided they think only of rejoicing…It provides for their security, foresees and takes care of their needs, facilitates their pleasures, manages their most important affairs, directs their industry…Why not relieve them of the trouble of thinking and the difficulty of living?”
Tocqueville saw people in conflict with themselves. “They feel the need to be led and the desire to remain free…” They participate just enough, “[emerging] from dependence for a moment to indicate their master and then return to it…” What does it matter who they think will lead them best? Tocqueville put it bluntly: “The nature of the master matters far less than the fact of obedience.”
Tocqueville feared “not that [citizens] will find tyrants among their leaders but rather that they will find protectors.” They will want to be protected.
Tocqueville saw us.
We want protection, safety, comfort. We will emerge from our cocoons in November to pick our master, then retreat. Someone – we hope - will take our problems and make them go away. Someone – not us – will take care of everything. Why not relieve them of the trouble of thinking and the difficulty of living?
And who will it be? Who will fight the ‘War on Terror’ – and keep us safe? Who will launch the next preemptive war – to keep us safe? Who will stop the evildoers? Who will save us from dirty bombs, shoe-bombs, truck bombs, suicide bombs, anthrax, nerve gas, box-cutters, hijackers, extremists, terrorists, dictators, freedom-haters, weapons of mass destruction? Who will lead us? Who will protect us? Who will it be? Oh, who will it be?
Just give us a leader and we’ll be fine. Give us a leader and yea, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil.
Give us a leader, big and strong, to chase our fears away
Give us a leader, quick, quick! Quick!! to come and save the day
Give us a leader - bless him God! - and make our troubles cease
Give us a leader to “stay the course” and even “win the peace”
Bring him soon: a Caesar, Savior, President-King
Bring him soon…so we can go
Back where we belong
Couch-bound and TV-glued to click away our days, Amen.
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