How Obama Portends an End to Self-Determinism
It will be argued that whatever may have been the merits of Tocqueville’s observations in 1831, they hardly obtain today. Society is infinitely more complex now than it was when Tocqueville and Beaumont visited America and such complexity necessitates a stronger central government. While at some level doubtlessly true, the sort of aggrandizement with which the American people now are threatened hardly is warranted, to say nothing of necessitated, by society’s increased complexity. Nor for that matter does such an argument adequately address the phenomenon that so captivated Tocqueville — namely that of an advanced people whose need for government was minimal.
By way of comparison, Tocqueville’s own people were hopelessly far removed from that ideal. The reach of Paris was felt throughout France. Of all the nations of Europe, France was the one where the capital city had acquired the greatest control over the rest of the country. There was virtually no part of the social and political milieu that was not affected by the Royal Council. Paris administered the roads in Tours, controlled the police in Mayenne, and established charities in Montauban. It even issued decrees that vineyards be torn up in the south of France for, according to the Council’s judgment, having been planted in the wrong soil!
Having supplanted Providence, the government was invoked in everyone’s hour of need. Peasants implored it to compensate for the loss of their animals; wealthy land owners requested help in managing their properties; manufacturers bemoaned the poor state of their businesses and begged for loans. When one of the roads connecting Maine to Normandy was rendered impassable, neither the merchants who used it nor the cantons who suffered from its poor condition took it upon themselves to fix it. The only action taken was the transmittal of a letter to the controller-general in Paris beseeching him to come to their aid.
It is hardly any wonder then that the French Revolution failed so unequivocally in securing liberty. Ever dependent on a central authority, the putative freedom they secured in overthrowing the monarchy could not eradicate the subordination that for so long had been fostered in their breasts. A decade after beheading their king, they would bow their own heads before an emperor possessed of a far more plenary power. (On the matter of establishing Napoleon as hereditary emperor of France, the vote in the plebiscite was 3.6 million for, 2,569 against.)
The story of the Americans was something altogether different. Ill-suited for the monarchical yoke, they were eminently worthy of the independence they declared in 1776. And it is this that makes the machinations of the current administration all the more lamentable. Once singular amongst the civilized peoples of the world for their aptitude for self-government, Americans are on the verge of squandering that rarest of virtues. Worse still, many are clamoring to do so, apparently altogether unaware that the road to serfdom is much more easily traveled than the road back.
Around the time he had begun to understand the extraordinary attainment of the American people, Tocqueville noted in his diary that “the greatest care of a good government should be to habituate people, little by little, to doing without it.” By this measure, it is painfully clear that in the hands of this nation’s 44th president, government could never be qualified as good. For its greatest care is precisely the opposite of what a good government’s should be: instead of habituating the people to relying on it less and less, it is obliging them to depend on it more and more.
thanks for this, David. A great piece.
People who only want to be coddled are easily lulled into complacency and apathy even when the flames of destruction are licking at their feet.
The wave of the Nanny State we have been riding began in earnest with FDR. LBJ was the one that made it a tsunami.
LBJ did three things that mattered in his presidency.
1) Mismanaged the Vietnam War and made it the morass it became.
2) He got Civil Rights acts passed that were absolutely, morally a great thing.
3) He got Welfare reform passed which destroyed the good he did with the Civil Rights reforms and further cursed this country with people who now can not survive without charity being handed to them. It wasn’t until they added work to the mix that the government could get people to take its money. The welfare laws make LBJ the worst president in US history to date.
When FDR started handing out money the program was failing miserably. Compare that to now and one can see how far American has fallen.
President Obama is trying to nail the coffin lid closed on American self reliance and self sufficiency. President Obama is where he is today by standing on the shoulders of midgets.
Oops, sorry about the repitition in point three.
Really excellent analysis – thank you!
David there is a prologue within these two pages for a book or a script. The polemic is a protagonist Democrat erosion of American vitality through championing victimhood and the inevitable peripeteia resulting from the incessant pressure of penalizing productive members of society to embrace and entitle an ever increasing nonproductive or minimally productive class. The prosperity to ruin syndrome, fueled by the Progressive Socialist’s march toward a nebulous Marxism that only thrives from a resource rich economy that has a free market to sell to or a state of abject poverty and slavery to support elites in opulence and wealth, is the protasis.
It is true that hybrid vigor and vitality were once America’s greatest assets, now that ingenuity and productivity is frowned upon by the all encompassing Democrat party and their increasingly quasi-militaristic groups of Labor and Acorn, except in the areas of Green Energy where the technology is vacuous, dubious and circumspect; the Democrat Party creates itself as the antithesis of the once great American vitality and vigor.
The Progressive Socialist inadvertently reinforces the premise of an inverse equation, As the Democrat Party increases its sphere and influence, productivity and wealth decrease; at least for the middle class.
Excuse my periphrasis, that was a nice essay David, it is worthy of a more detailed analysis. I need to go to work, please take time from your studies to enlighten us occassionally.
Thank you for a timely reminder about what it means to be an American.
A somnolent republic can be overtaken by a subversive mob. Will the American spirit wake up before it’s too late? I hope and pray it does.
“How Obama Portends an End to Self-Determinism”
No, no, almost-Dr. Eisenberg (your mother must be kvelling!); Obama portends The End of Civilization As We Know It.
Btw, I LOVE your command of academic lingo, e.g., “The prosperity to ruin syndrome, fueled by the Progressive Socialist’s march toward a nebulous Marxism that only thrives from a resource rich economy that has a free market to sell to or a state of abject poverty and slavery to support elites in opulence and wealth, is the protasis.” Whew! Keep up the good work. By the time you get your doctorate, you should be COMPLETELY unintelligible.
Precision!
The Democrat Party has been chipping away at the American Peoples’ freedoms for years; Their institution of “social programs” are straight out of the Communist Playbook.
And this Congress, media, czars, and president can’t goose step fast enough!
So unintelligible, bibio44, that you’ve misattributed the quote.
David, an excellent article! I await your next one.
Right you are, Burn! My apologies to Dr. Sampson.
Mr.Eisenberg;
Please read chapter 3 of F. A. Hatek’s “The Road to Serfdom”. It sounds as if you may have read this already; A striking resemblance to “individualism and collectivism”.
Sorry for the typo; F. A. Hayek.
David:
“Society is infinitely more complex now than it was when Tocqueville and Beaumont visited America and such complexity necessitates a stronger central government.”
Complexity is one of the fundamental problems with a socialist economic model. Economic complexity is not effectively addressed when power is socialized because government forces individuals to adapt to the government’s abstraction of the economy and complexity, rather than the individuals adapting to economic realities and thus dealing with and comprehending the complexity more effectively.
If individuals are confused and think that their economic system is too complex and fragile, then politicians have an opportunity to attempt to centralize power in government, e.g. via socialism, communism, totalitarianism. Fear is frequently used throughout history to justify sacrificing individual power and freedom to government.
Obama has publicly claimed that individuals cannot deal with the economic complexity of the current economic crisis. He clearly stated that “only government” would be able to bring us out of the recession. I hope there is a majority in this country who do not accept that statement as fact, and see that this idealogy necessarily leads towards socialism, not away from it.
Here’s the definition of nanny state . . . “Go shopping.”
Bravo, Mike in CO:
As Hayek pointed out, central planning ultimately is impossible, because the information required for intelligent decision-making is diffused throughout the economy and beyond the reach of the central planners (even assuming that they have the capacity to process it all, which they don’t).
Free markets are economic distributed processing: the Collectivists are still chained to dinosaur mainframes.
Free markets are economic distributed processing: the Collectivists are still chained to dinosaur mainframes.
Yes, which is why it is so important for the Collectivists to control “the narrative” and steer it toward their own preferred “solutions”. Over the years, I’ve seen survey after survey indicating a huge disconnect between how people perceive their own lives and how they think the country overall is faring. Typically, upwards of 70% of people rate their own lives as “good” or “excellent” or whatever the equivalent term on that particular survey is, but rarely do the numbers on the country’s overall health top 50% rating it so highly.
Similar numbers in the latest health care narrative also exist, where among the insured, a strong majority are satisfied with their access to health care (yes, everyone complains about cost, but that is a standard human complaint and the financial statements of health care providers and insurers tell the story and that story is, it’s not a very high margin market), yet a majority also think the overall system is in crisis. Which is not surprising, when you have fools like Obama saying that doctors get $50K for amputating a foot, which is a number that fits “the narrative” on health care, when the actual amount is closer to $1K.
As for Collectivists overall, I like what Nietzsche had to say, which is that they are a bunch of zeros who get together and think they add up to something. Screw ‘em all sideways.
The word twisting and use of euphemisms is a left wing Socialist/ NAZI thing. Just think back to the 1930 when we were introduced by the NAZI’s to
Resettlement…………….DEPORTATION to death camps.
Final Solution……………Mass genocide for Jews , Homosexuals, Gypsy’s and undesirable Political opponents
Mercy killing…………….Euthanasia for the old and infirm and mentally retarded
And who can forget the most cruel lie of all written above the Concentration Camp gates ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ Work Gives Freedom.
The Obamanation is leading you down this path America wake up before its too late.
The nation seems to be filling up with Chauncey Gardiners.
Economic justice: Newspeak for punitive wealth confiscation. In short, theft.
Social justice: Newspeak for grievance group tyranny. In short, oppression.
venividivici: Great names think alike
20. Pragmatist:
I’d like to add “social engineering” of the Nazi type.
Obama’s worldview, social concepts, fiscal policies, ability to select quality associates, and understanding of what it means to be President of the United States are all on the level of a college sophomore.
What’s needed is an IMPEACH OBAMA NOW movement.
bibio44:
No, no, almost-Dr. Eisenberg (your mother must be kvelling!); Obama portends The End of Civilization As We Know It.
Whatchu talkin bout? His momma be sayin that her boy be bout it bout it.
Or is it only permissible to stereotype Jews?
Its still important to remember that our national defense (both foreign and domestic) and our borders and our national health care (still to come) to include the national social safety net is our national responsibility. To compromise on these is to admit failure. Let the locals handle the rest.