Adult Education Fall 2012 –
Tocqueville: Christianity and Culture in America
Class 4 – October7: Beyond Individual v. Community
- Which is more important: the individual or the community?
- The community rejected for the sake of the individual:“I am done with the monster of ‘We,’ the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame.And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride.This god, this one word:‘I.’” – Ayn Rand, Anthem
- The individual submerged into the community:“The constant will of all the members of the state is the general will; through it they are citizens and free. When a law is proposed in the general assembly, what is asked of them is not precisely whether they approve or reject, but whether or not is conforms to the general will that is theirs. […] When, therefore, the opinion contrary to mine prevails, this proves merely that I was in error, and that what I took to be the general will was not so. If my private opinion had prevailed, I would have done something other than what I had wanted. In that case I would not have been free.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract
- On Tocqueville’s analysis, individualism and communitarianism and two faces of a single problem that threatens democratic societies.
- Delinkage isolates individuals and can lead to individualism.“Individualism is a calm and considered feeling which disposes each citizen to isolate himself from the mass of his fellows and withdraw into the circle of family and friends; with this little society formed to his taste, he gladly leaves the greater society to look after itself.” (2.2.2, 507).[1]
- Individualism is one of the most distinctive dangers of the democratic age.Individualism is based on “misguided judgment rather than depraved feeling”—specifically, a narrow conception of self-interest that one might call selfish interest (2.2.2, 506).Tocqueville calls “the spirit of individual independence” the “most dangerous enemy” or religion (2.1.5, 449).
- “Egoism sterilizes the seeds of every virtue; individualism at first only dams the spring of public virtues, but in the long run it attacks and destroys all the others too and finally merges in egoism. Egoism is a vice as old as the world. […] Individualism is of democratic origin and threatens to grow as conditions get more equal” (2.2.2, 507).
- If individualism stretches too loose the bonds of society, there will be a communitarian backlash.
- The atomization of humanity is unpleasant. The delinkage of the democratic age leads us to experience ourselves to be alienated from both community and creation, andfillsus with anxiety.
- Democratic peoples will be tempted to use the power of the state to create the community and security that they lack.Making the central government the locus of community only isolates each individual further beneath the pervasive state.
- “I see an innumerable multitude of men, alike and equal, constantly circling around in pursuit of the petty and banal pleasures with which they glut their souls. Each one of them, withdrawn into himself, is almost unaware of the fate of the rest. […] Over this kind of men stands an immense, protective power which is alone responsible for securing their enjoyment and watching over their fate. That power is absolute, thoughtful of detail, orderly, provident, and gentle. It would resemble a parental authority if, father-like, it tried to prepare its charges for a man’s life, but on the contrary, it only tries to keep them in perpetual childhood” (2.4.6, 692).
- Beyond individual v. community is the city of God: self, God, and neighbor choosing to be bound in covenant.
- Religion draws us away from comfort and toward our neighbor. If we are not draw out of self and toward our neighbor, we center our lives on consumer comforts. Moreover, concern for abstractions like the community orhumanity does not educelike face-to-face relationships; ideasare a poor substitute for relationships.
- “One must admit that equality, while it brings great benefits to mankind, opens the door, as I hope to show later, to very dangerous instincts. It tends to isolate men from each other so that each thinks only of himself. It lays the soul open to an inordinate love of material pleasure. The greatest advantage of religions is to inspire diametrically contrary urges. Every religion places the object of man’s desires outside and beyond worldly goods and naturally lifts the soul into regions far above the realm of the senses. Every religion also imposes on each man some obligations toward mankind, to be performed in common with the rest of mankind, and so draws him away, from time to time, from thinking about himself. […] Thus religious peoples are naturally strong just at the point where democratic peoples are weak.” (2.1.5, 444-445).
- “Feelings and ideas are renewed, the heart enlarged, and the understanding developed only by the reciprocal action of men one upon another” (2.2.5, 515)
- The antidote to individualism is self-interest rightly understood. Individualism breeds a narrow and shallow self-interest that cuts off God and neighbor. Our self-interest is rightly understood onlythrough faith in Christ andpractical experiencewith face-to-face relationships.Because our natural ties are gone, the eternal choice that has always confronted humans has become more obvious:will we bind ourselves in covenantto God and neighbor?
- “In the United States there is hardly any talk of the beauty of virtue. But they maintain that virtue is useful and prove it every day. American moralists do not pretend that one must sacrifice himself for his fellows because it is a fine thing to do so. But they boldly assert that such sacrifice is as necessary for the man who makes it is as for the beneficiaries” (2.2.8, 525).
- “If the doctrine of self-interest properly understood were concerned with this world only, that would not be nearly enough. For there are a great many sacrifices which can only be rewarded in the next.” (2.2.9, 528).
Our natural bonds have fallen away; we must now choose to bind ourselves together in covenant.The meaning of history is delinkage because the meaning of history is the city of God. We will either voluntarily relink with God and neighbor, or we will isolate ourselves now and forever.
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[1]All citations from Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, ed. J.P. Mayer, trans. George Lawrence (New York: Harper and Row, 1968) are listed in the text in the format volume.part.chapter, page.