I never dreamed that, in my lifetime, I'd see the majority of the electorate volunteer to be infantilized, as Tocqueville predicted:
1. Alexis de Tocqueville, writing Democracy in America in the 1830s, described an immense, tutelary power, which takes sole charge of assuring their enjoyment and of watching over their fate. As he predicted, this power is absolute, attentive to detail, regular, provident, and gentle, and it works willingly for their happiness, but it wishes to be the only agent and the sole arbiter of that happiness. It provides for their security, foresees and supplies their needs, guides them in their principal affairs, directs their industry, regulates their testaments, divides their inheritances. It is entirely proper to ask, as he asked, whether it can relieve them entirely of the trouble of thinking and of the effort associated with living.
The same, written more recently:
2. Before the tipping point, Americans remain independent and take responsibility for their own well-being. Once we have gone beyond the "tipping point," that self-sufficient outlook will be gradually transformed into a soft despotism a lot like Europe's social welfare states. Soft despotism isn't cruel or mean, it's kindly and sympathetic. It doesn't help anyone take charge of life, but it does keep everyone in a happy state of childhood. A growing centralized bureaucracy will provide for everyone's needs, care for everyone's heath, direct everyone's career, arrange everyone's important private affairs, and work for everyone's pleasure. The only hitch is, government must be the sole supplier of everyone's happiness ... the shepherd over this flock of sheep. RealClearPolitics - Should America Bid Farewell to Exceptional Freedom?
And, from "A Nation of Moochers: America's Addiction to Getting Something for Nothing," by Charles J. Sykes:
3. To be on the wrong side of the tipping point, one loses self-respect, independence, and ultimately, freedom: dependency changes ones relationship with government, as one must cling to a sense of victimhood and incapacity. Compare that to the other side, the belief that the average American is competent to navigate his own life; that parents are capable of raising their own children; that most Americans are fully able to pursue happiness with only an occasional helping hand. For example, the GI Bill was underpinned by the well-founded assumption that given a chance at a college education, the Greatest Generation would be able to take advantage of the opportunity and it was!
4. For the Left, there is the Assumption of Incompetence .unable, incapable, incompetent. The nanny is caring, compassionate .but smothering. Basically, its motto is We care so much about you, that well take over from here and run your life for you. Appearing to be compassion, the Assumption of Incompetence actually treats clients with a mixture of pity and contempt. Ibid.
5. A dedication to the Obama voters:
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
"The Hollow Men," TS Eliot
1. Alexis de Tocqueville, writing Democracy in America in the 1830s, described an immense, tutelary power, which takes sole charge of assuring their enjoyment and of watching over their fate. As he predicted, this power is absolute, attentive to detail, regular, provident, and gentle, and it works willingly for their happiness, but it wishes to be the only agent and the sole arbiter of that happiness. It provides for their security, foresees and supplies their needs, guides them in their principal affairs, directs their industry, regulates their testaments, divides their inheritances. It is entirely proper to ask, as he asked, whether it can relieve them entirely of the trouble of thinking and of the effort associated with living.
The same, written more recently:
2. Before the tipping point, Americans remain independent and take responsibility for their own well-being. Once we have gone beyond the "tipping point," that self-sufficient outlook will be gradually transformed into a soft despotism a lot like Europe's social welfare states. Soft despotism isn't cruel or mean, it's kindly and sympathetic. It doesn't help anyone take charge of life, but it does keep everyone in a happy state of childhood. A growing centralized bureaucracy will provide for everyone's needs, care for everyone's heath, direct everyone's career, arrange everyone's important private affairs, and work for everyone's pleasure. The only hitch is, government must be the sole supplier of everyone's happiness ... the shepherd over this flock of sheep. RealClearPolitics - Should America Bid Farewell to Exceptional Freedom?
And, from "A Nation of Moochers: America's Addiction to Getting Something for Nothing," by Charles J. Sykes:
3. To be on the wrong side of the tipping point, one loses self-respect, independence, and ultimately, freedom: dependency changes ones relationship with government, as one must cling to a sense of victimhood and incapacity. Compare that to the other side, the belief that the average American is competent to navigate his own life; that parents are capable of raising their own children; that most Americans are fully able to pursue happiness with only an occasional helping hand. For example, the GI Bill was underpinned by the well-founded assumption that given a chance at a college education, the Greatest Generation would be able to take advantage of the opportunity and it was!
4. For the Left, there is the Assumption of Incompetence .unable, incapable, incompetent. The nanny is caring, compassionate .but smothering. Basically, its motto is We care so much about you, that well take over from here and run your life for you. Appearing to be compassion, the Assumption of Incompetence actually treats clients with a mixture of pity and contempt. Ibid.
5. A dedication to the Obama voters:
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
"The Hollow Men," TS Eliot
