them, but he feels them not; he exists but in himself and for himself alone; and if his kindred still remain to him, he may be said at any rate to have lost his country. Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications, and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like he authority of a parent, if, like that authority its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labours, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principle concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living? This, perhaps the most well-known and prophetic lines of Democracy in America describe the deplorable conditions to which Tocqueville believes democracy will lead mankind. Mayer writes; In fact, the grandeur of his prophetic gift is impressed upon one by the fact that after the passage of hundred-plus years, his words have proved an exact description of a present day reality. While many academics, including myself, would consider it overzealous to proclaim Tocquevilles vision as modern reality, there are definitely striking and dangerous resemblances. De Beaumont, Tocquevilles good friend and colleague, recalled that Tocqueville had many questions relating to despotism before his trip to America, and that this trip only served to strengthen his inquisition. Alexis wrote, How to prevent a power, the offspring of democracy, from becoming abs...
