Thoughts For Free Men Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. The power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities,facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns,directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritance: what remains but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living. Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these things: it has predisposed men to endure them and often to look on them as benefits… Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd. (pp. 336-337) Alexis de Tocqueville. From Democracy in America, Volume II. 1840 Proverbs 23:1-3 (NKJV) 1 When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you; 2 And put a knife to your throat If you are a man given to appetite. 3 Do not desire his delicacies, For they are deceptive food. Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)MoreClick to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Related
Those Proverbs always get right here, y’know? They are powerful.
Exactly right.
I’m thinking I should showcase their profound relevancy more often.