Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The Not-So-Good Shepherd

Alexis de Toqueville warns of democratic despotism in America - in 1840.

This new sovereign:

... does not break wills but it softens them, bends them, and directs them; it rarely forces one to act, but it constantly opposes itself to one's acting; it does not destroy, it prevents things from being born; it does not tyrannize, it hinders, compromises, enervates, extinguishes, dazes, and finally reduces each nation to being nothing more than a herd of timid and industrious animals of which government is the shepherd.


Look familiar?

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