People will eventually find that they are not moving towards the ideal freedom, but entering another state of slavery.

Jun 13, 2023

In a blink of an eye, the democratic society has entered the 21st century, and people are surprised that Tocqueville's book is not a classic of sociological observation or history, but a proper book of prophecy. When public opinion becomes a certain kind of authoritative performance, how can we, as readers and individuals, try to get rid of such confinement and enslavement?

Compared with "Democracy in America (Part 1)", Tocqueville's writing style in the second volume is more sad and sharp, and he has a higher degree of vigilance and fear for the unstoppable scourge of the democratic system. At the beginning of the second volume, the so-called majority violence and the restraint of majority public opinion were further developed by Tocqueville.

In the prologue of this volume, Tocqueville begins to discuss the so-called democracy in "emotions and opinions". In addition, I also appeal to readers not to attribute all their inferences to "democracy" and "equality", and hope that readers can think in a multi-faceted way. In addition, in the second half of the prologue, it is also stated again that contemporary democracy is imperative, and it is precisely because of this that Tocqueville will examine the system of democracy more carefully and critically.

▍American Philosophical Method──Advocating personal rationality and exploration

Compared with Europe, which has a long history of philosophical factions, the United States does not have the tradition and literacy of philosophy, but it shares a common philosophical method, which is to explore things by yourself, ignore traditions and go deep into the essence, and guard personal reason. its personal efforts.

Why is this so? Tocqueville believes that this is because the democratic society in the United States has broken the so-called "philosophies" such as past history and class that need to be inherited. In this state, individuals are everything and the "equality" that can get rid of authority state" . Even so, individuals are relatively isolated at this time, and people cannot influence another individual by speaking. Everyone can freely interpret it according to its inner nature, and use its own rationality to describe the external world . With this kind of Cartesian thinking of supremacy of reason, Americans hate all kinds of things in form, and any form that has nothing to do with "searching for the essence of things" is regarded as inferior.

Looking back at the history of Europe, we can also find the same thread. In the seventeenth century, Descartes and Bacon made private judgments and amendments to generally accepted principles, thereby breaking out of the traditional mold, although what came out of it was a series of philosophies that could be followed to challenge the tradition Discuss the route. Having said that, for Descartes, his method was also limited by himself to some specific fields rather than all fields. It was not until after the eighteenth century that philosophers began to "universally" private views Heaps are added to the axioms.

The reason for such historical development is related to the unique background of Europe. Tocqueville sees this philosophical approach as advancing in parallel with the progress of equality in human status . The reason is that such a philosophical method can easily attack the old tradition and even the old society.

However, the two sets of philosophical approaches in the United States and France, although seemingly similar, developed in quite different lines. For Americans, first of all, their society is born of religion. Although there are different sects, the Christian faith as a whole allows Americans to be convinced morally. In other words, individual rational doubts only play a small role .

In addition, the democratic and equal society in the United States has not experienced any democratic revolution . In other words, the philosophical way in American society is not like the individual and individual relying on independent reason and opposing each other in anarchy after the outbreak of the democratic revolution. , Such a state will lead to an excessive level of personal isolation, and the United States has not experienced such a history, but has entered a new world of relative equality and democracy from the very beginning. This is one of the reasons why it is necessary to debate the philosophical methods and social conditions of both the United States and France.

▍The authority of truth in the new society──the public

In any society, it is quite necessary to have constant truths and beliefs. After all, human life is limited, and a constant belief is needed to integrate the self and extend to other fields. Tocqueville called such a state of "slavery" a respectable state, and only after accepting the beliefs of others and developing downward can one use one's freedom more properly. In other words, the construction of morality and knowledge is often inseparable from the establishment of authority, so where is such authority in a democratic society?

As mentioned above, individuals in a democratic society often admire their rationality and ability, even to the point of excess. That is to say, in a modern democratic society, there will not be a group of people who monopolize power to control the ignorant masses. In a society that is becoming more equal, people will not unconditionally believe in a certain other person, but instead Come and convince the "mass". That is, the opinion of the masses becomes the source of "authority" and the source of personal norms in a democratic society. In the United States, people tend to believe in the opinions of the public. In terms of religion, Americans do not believe in religion, but in the "commonly accepted opinions" of the public.

Finally, Tocqueville predicted that the development of a democratic society would not erase the authority of the past, but reappear in the form of public opinion, and further compress individual freedom of thought. People will eventually find that they are not moving towards the ideal freedom, but entering another state of slavery.

▍Freedom and Slavery

"The tension in the book "Democracy in America" comes from Tocqueville's deep belief in the inevitability and necessity of equality, but he is still attached to the aristocracy in its heyday." This is Epstein's "Tocqueville: A Democracy Teacher" "I quite agree with the succinct but concise comments on the book. With his keen insight, Tocqueville recorded in detail how a democratic and equal society in the United States started from the pioneers and moved towards the masses. the process of.

Rather than saying it is nostalgia for the aristocratic system, it is better to say that it is a kind of helplessness about the continuous rotation of the political system and social status but is ultimately limited to slavery. Confidence in democracy and equality may come from general trends or some Sisyphus-like beliefs, but what is democracy to him? What is equality? If there is no slavery, how can there be freedom?

Maybe there is no so-called "true freedom" in the first place, maybe what we are pursuing is a certain state, a process from sinking from slavery to freedom, and then finding slavery from freedom.

Ruthless business PART1:

Do you want to discuss more international news and books with me in the construction of Bar's co-learning community? Welcome to join the co-learning community I founded. We will hold reading clubs every week (the new reading club is officially finalized, and Camus's "The Stranger" will officially start at 9:00 p.m. on June 19!), and we will hold learning sharing from time to time meeting!

All in all, if you like reading, thinking, and learning, then you are welcome to join us!