An Ethical Conundrum?

Abstract

And so, during his frequently occurring elections, the American citizen does not stride abroad in sturdy liberty, rather he is a dazed man under siege, and through letter-box, telephone, television, doorbell (eventually, we are reliably assured, his home computer) the empty smiles of his politicians pursue him. Politics will ooze through every fissure. Soap powder, at least, confines its vulgar brightness to the screen.

‘In aristocratic nations, the body of the nobles and the wealthy are in themselves natural associations, which check the abuses of power. In countries where such associations do not exist, if private individuals cannot create an artificial and temporary substitute for them, I can see no permanent protection against the most galling tyranny; and a great people may be oppressed with impunity by a small faction, or by a single individual.’

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

‘Thus, not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but it hides his descendants and separates his contemporaries from him; it throws him back forever upon himself alone, and threatens in the end to confine him entirely within the solitude of his own heart.’

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America