Saturday, October 10, 2009

de Tocqueville's America . . .NOT

In her exciting blog, my perceptive and clever friend, Rosita (http://rositatheprolesnastylittlebloggingproblem.wordpress.com/) laments the loss of a free press in our land. She could not find a remedy in de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America", for he complains that 'as men become more alike, the rules of advancement become more rigid, and advancement slows.' But through no fault of his own, de Tocqueville missed something; the America he saw was not our America.
And thank God for it. Otherwise we'd be one big Canada. (Perish the thought!) In fact, he was blessed to live at a time when men had brains in their heads.
Tocqueville’s book was written when most men’s lives were guided by doctrine and supported by principle. Honor was the second of these, after God and before country. Why? Because that’s what they were taught in childhood by their parents and later in their formal education. If, by reason of birth or condition, formal education was wanting, example was plentiful and defiance punished. Was social injustice a part of that long-ago society? Beyond doubt. Did its presence, like today’s self-styled and witless reformers assert, invalidate America’s history? Is there a Washington or a Jefferson alive anywhere in the world today? Hello!
Someone in my family attended the University of South Carolina in Columbia. When the Civil War broke out, the entire student body, seventy-five young men in all, volunteered for service in the Confederate Army. In today’s America, the only time such unanimity of purpose might be evident among our university airheads is under the conditions of a rock concert or an anti-war protest. And besides social agitation and narcissism, there wouldn’t otherwise be the faintest consideration of principle, steadfastness or conviction in their weak little minds, saying nothing of honor.
They tell us that time marches on and cultural values change. What culture? I say as the twig is bent so grows the tree. Today’s America is lost, and absent catastrophic trial, will never again know honor, purpose or patriotic fervor.
Too bad for us.

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