released 1/16/2025
In this essay, Patrick Deneen examines Alexis de Tocqueville’s complex and insightful portrait of “democratic man” living in the context of perpetual societal tension between the excesses of liberty and equality. Both liberty and equality are essential aspects of democracy, but tend toward tension because of the natural pull to excess on either side. While Tocqueville appeals to people who prioritize one side or the other, most admirers don’t understand his deeper critique: that these tensions create a situation in which Americans are actually “conforming individualists” or “individualistic conformists.” People internalize a sense of the tyranny of the majority; they self-censor and withdraw from public involvement, feeling autonomous potency when alone, but weak and powerless to affect society at large. Deneen argues that a needed cure is practicing the “arts of association,” which must be “artificially” nurtured by government in this age of individualism.
This essay is provided courtesy of The Hedgehog Review. It was published in the Spring 2002 issue and is read by Ken Myers.
39 minutes
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