A distinguished visitor to America in its formative years had something important to say about democracy and socialism. “Democracy,” said Alexis de Tocqueville, “extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and Socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.” Our French visitor would go on to remark that “Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.” (Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America.)
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Could something recorded by a scholarly observer nearly two hundred years ago regarding equality, democracy and socialism be hitting the nail on the head in today’s “woke times”? The wake in these times have been aware that equality in opportunity and equality in outcome are not the same thing but are in fact incompatible with each other. The first activists of this country and America’s founders were determined to terminate dictatorial rule and dedicate themselves and their fortunes to establishing a country where equality with liberty would have a place to flourish. They did this not for themselves alone but for future generations (that’s us). To that purpose they bequeathed us the instrument to secure equally with freedom: our Constitution.
Our prophetic 19th-century visitor (Tocqueville) cautioned: “Egalité…means, no one shall be better off than I am; and [where] this is preferred to good government, good government is impossible.”
Reducing people to common denominators, the operating principle of egalitarianism, inevitably reduces human life to servitude to the powerful. America’s founders would have none of this lording over people as though they were serfs. Determined to end the dictatorship of the few over the many, the founders gave We the People an effective means of keeping those with ambitions beyond their authority from having their way.
Those who think “equalizing” people is for their own good miss the fact that leveling reduces the value of life for everyone — including themselves. For it removes the incentive to reach for a better life. Leveling defeats the opportunity to tap into what natural creativity or inventiveness one may be born, so as to have a fuller life for oneself and others. Taking egalitarianism seriously without considering its drawback on one’s own progress is not humanitarian selflessness but de facto thoughtlessness.
Mindless and heartless men and women holding power in and out of government aim for a form of justice that is warped in our time by Marxism and secular humanism, each depraved in its own way by rejecting the natural order of things and scoffing at morality. This can and does generate injustice of epidemic proportion throughout the land. Adding fake science to their efforts only intensifies the toxicity of the results. Remember the virus that was made to take away our Constitutional rights, tank the economy, incarcerate people in their homes, arrest those not wearing a mask, cancel church, Thanksgiving and Christmas…all in the name of science! Enough people with intact minds thankfully knocked that bull out of the park.
With their heads in a twilight zone, their thumbs in fake science, their noses in class politics, and their mouths in the media, the wannabe lords of society have made an awful lot of people swallow an awful lot of bunk, such as that the pursuit of excellence is outdated, cheating is legit, the group is superior to the family, science even of the authentic kind replaces wisdom….
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Numerous such reversals of sanity among the “woke” have severely infected justice in our time. The wake are aware of this perversion of justice and working to make votes speak louder than money in coming elections.
It doesn’t take much to know that wellbeing depends on constant vigilance. The thoughtful are aware of the necessity of keeping the mind free. It is clear to a sound mind that the pursuit of happiness cannot even begin when a false “equality” is made to direct one’s actions. It should be clear that letting false “equality” dominate our thinking prepares us for life in a world ruled by men with no actual interest in those they rule.
Unleveled, grass-roots Americans aren’t buying the politics of the Marxist-contaminated Left being recycled by neo-communists still stewing over their lost cause. Americans aware of the difference between freedom and slavery will never let the Left’s cultural insanity prevail, no matter how effectively marketed in Hollywood, TV, pop magazines, college classrooms, seminaries, and wherever God and His Creation are obscured and mocked.
In vain do leftists accuse unleveled Americans of destroying democracy. To detect who is responsible, they must look in the mirror.
The path to justice provided by democracy is shut off to those who pursue socialism, communism, and other ideologies of false equality.
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Anthony J. DeBlasi is a veteran and life-long defender of Western Culture.
Image: Public domain.