• About Waldo “Wally” Tomosky and his blogs
  • CONFUSED? (Serial Posts; Where do they Start? Stand Alone Posts; where are they?)

waldotomosky

~ Old Books, Old Artists and Other Interesting People

waldotomosky

Category Archives: Tocqueville and Me

Post 6: Tocqueville and me

11 Monday Dec 2017

Posted by Waldo "Wally" Tomosky in Tocqueville and Me

≈ 1 Comment

 

 

Tocqueville on Government Regulation

“Thus, after taking each individual by turns in its powerful hands

and kneading him as it likes, the sovereign extends

its arms over society as a whole.”

“It covers its surface with a network of small,

complicated, painstaking, uniform rules

through which the most original minds

and the most vigorous souls

cannot clear a way

to surpass

the crowd.”

“It does not break wills but it softens them, and directs them,

[then] 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.”

“Nothing more than a herd of timid

and industrious animals

of which government

is the shepherd.”

 

According to me

“A ubiquitous government works the population

into a smooth and uniform mass.

Networks of law and regulation

force an extremely healthy mind

into compromise;

until the mind

extinguishes

itself.”

Post 5: Tocqueville and me

10 Sunday Dec 2017

Posted by Waldo "Wally" Tomosky in Tocqueville and Me

≈ 3 Comments

Tocqueville on Correctness

“So it is that every day [political correctness] renders the employment

of free will less useful and more rare;

it confines the action of the will

in a smaller space and

little by little it steals

the very use of it

from each citizen.”

 

According to me

“The will of independent action and choice

is replaced by acting

and speaking

‘correctly’.”

 

 

Post 4: Tocqueville and me

08 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by Waldo "Wally" Tomosky in Tocqueville and Me

≈ Leave a comment

 

Tocqueville on False Benefactors

“Above [the citizens] an immense [government] is elevated,

which alone takes charge of assuring

their enjoyments and watching

over their fate.

It is absolute,

far-seeing,

detailed,

regular,

mild.”

“It would resemble paternal power if,

like that, it had for its object

to prepare men for manhood;

but on the contrary,

it seeks only to keep

them fixed

irrevocably

in childhood.”

“It likes citizens to enjoy themselves

provided that they think only

of enjoying themselves.”

“It willingly works for their happiness;

but it wants to be the unique agent

and sole arbiter of that.”

“It provides for [everyone’s] security,

conducts their principal affairs,

divides their inheritances,

facilitates their pleasures,

directs their industry,

regulates their estates,

foresees and secures

their [false] needs.”

“Can it not take away from them,

entirely the trouble of thinking,

the pain of living?”

 

According to me

“They have displaced their instinct

with belief in the ‘common good.’

which is never ‘common’,

and never ‘good’,”

 

“And then also belief in

‘peace and justice’,

which is never

peaceful,

or just.”

 

Post 3: Tocqueville and Me

07 Thursday Dec 2017

Posted by Waldo "Wally" Tomosky in Tocqueville and Me

≈ 2 Comments

Tocqueville on Egalitarianism

“I want to imagine with what new features

despotism could be produced in the world:

I see an innumerable crowd of like

and equal men who revolve

on themselves without

repose, procuring

the small and vulgar

pleasures with which

they fill their souls.”

 

According to me

“The current concern is that our multitudes lay resting; supported by a false hope.”

Post 2: Tocqueville and Me

06 Wednesday Dec 2017

Posted by Waldo "Wally" Tomosky in Tocqueville and Me

≈ Leave a comment

Tocqueville on the University

“When I think of the passions of men of our day,

the extent of their enlightenment,

their laborious and steady habits,

the mildness of their morality,

the purity of their religion,

the restraint that almost all

the softness of their mores,

preserved in vice

as in virtue.”

“I do not fear that in their chiefs they will find tyrants, but rather schoolmasters. …”

 

According to me

“Pop art, pop religion, egalitarianism;

all that is incorporated in

popular culture and

today’s mass media

leads to following;

steadfastly

following,

blindly

following.”

“The constitution is being redacted by the university.”

 


Copyright W. Tomosky
12/6/2017

Post 1: Tocqueville and Me

05 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by Waldo "Wally" Tomosky in Tocqueville and Me

≈ Leave a comment

 

Tocqueville on GoodFella’s

 

“It seems that if despotism came to be established

in the democratic nations of our day,

it would have other characteristics:

it would be extensive and milder,

and it would degrade men

without tormenting them.”

 

 

According to me

 

“Beware those who wish to improve the lives of ordinary people.”

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Categories

  • A Circumfluent Model of Consciousness and Emotions
  • A DEVINE TRAGEDY
  • ADIRONDACK IMAGES AND TALES
  • Adirondack Mountains Today
  • Adirondack Mountains Yesterday
  • Aiden Lair
  • ALEX
  • Archaeology
  • ARCHIVES OF SIN
  • AS I WANDERED
  • BEHOLD ME! For I am NED.
  • Destruction of the Soul
  • DREAMING WALLY
  • Educational
  • Egil's Saga
  • EXTREMADURA
  • FISHERMEN
  • Forty Days and Forty Nights
  • Fred Speaks
  • Genghis Khan
  • Going Down
  • Haloween
  • Historical
  • Isabel Paterson
  • JOHN AUGUSTUS HOWS & FRIENDS
  • John Bessac
  • JUAN JAIN
  • Ladies Fashions in the Antebellum
  • Notes From Popeville
  • Odds and Ends
  • PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE
  • Philosophical
  • Short Stories
  • The Chateaugay Platoon
  • The Dehkhoda
  • THE INEBRIATE
  • THE PILGRIMAGE
  • Tocqueville and Me
  • Uncategorized
  • Upstate New York
  • Zodiac

Recent Posts

  • (no title)
  • Just Released: My New Paperback “THE LIBRARIANS”
  • NEW GLOBE
  • HEY MOM, HE’S AT IT AGAIN
  • VERDANT PALACES
  • DEATH
  • BUY IT NOW
  • CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS GUY? HE IS SELF PROMOTING AGAIN. Sheeeesh!
  • Egalitarianism, Utopianism and Other Such Nonsense
  • Adirondack Images and Tales Slideshow
  • The Land of Akbar; Post #1 (an introduction)
  • HARMONY
  • PAINTED FACES – PAINTED MEN
  • The Dehkhoda S3:E5 A Story About Sharing
  • The Dehkhoda S3:E4 The Dehkhoda Teaches Them About “Understanding”

A month by month list of all the posts. HOWEVER, IN REVERSE ORDER

My Info

  • About Waldo “Wally” Tomosky and his blogs
  • CONFUSED? (Serial Posts; Where do they Start? Stand Alone Posts; where are they?)

Recent Posts

  • (no title)
  • Just Released: My New Paperback “THE LIBRARIANS”
  • NEW GLOBE
  • HEY MOM, HE’S AT IT AGAIN
  • VERDANT PALACES
  • DEATH
  • BUY IT NOW
  • CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS GUY? HE IS SELF PROMOTING AGAIN. Sheeeesh!
  • Egalitarianism, Utopianism and Other Such Nonsense
  • Adirondack Images and Tales Slideshow
  • The Land of Akbar; Post #1 (an introduction)
  • HARMONY
  • PAINTED FACES – PAINTED MEN
  • The Dehkhoda S3:E5 A Story About Sharing
  • The Dehkhoda S3:E4 The Dehkhoda Teaches Them About “Understanding”

Categories

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 871 other subscribers

Wally’s Other Blogs

  • About Waldo “Wally” Tomosky and his blogs
  • CONFUSED? (Serial Posts; Where do they Start? Stand Alone Posts; where are they?)

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • waldotomosky
    • Join 741 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • waldotomosky
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...