George Will has written a brilliant new column ( townhall.com/columnists/GeorgeWill/2009/05/10/upside-down_economy) on what ails America. He quotes one of my favorite authors about democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville, the Frenchman who travelled this country 200 years ago and made a number of incisive observations about how and why the U.S. was quite different from Europe. Will offers this quote as prophetic of the situation in which we currently find ourselves:
"In "Democracy in America," Alexis de Tocqueville anticipated people being governed by "an immense, tutelary power" determined to take "sole charge of assuring their enjoyment and of watching over their fate." It would be a power "absolute, attentive to detail, regular, provident and gentle," aiming for our happiness but wanting "to be the only agent and the sole arbiter of that happiness." It would, Tocqueville said, provide people security, anticipate their needs, direct their industries and divide their inheritances. It would envelop society in "a network of petty regulations -- complicated, minute and uniform." But softly: "It does not break wills; it softens them, bends them, and directs them" until people resemble "a herd of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."
Well said Monsieur de Tocqueville. It is also critical to remember that while such an all-encompassing goverment may attain power in this benign way, Lord Acton admonishes us that it most likely will not remain that way - power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We are starting down a dangerous path.
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