Alexis de Tocqueville Questions 2 and 5

Question 2: Why does a society devoted to equal opportunity weaken each individual?
Response: According to Alexis de Tocqueville equal opportunity open to all weakens a person because everything becomes more competitive; the American becomes more competitive because they know they can attain what another American has. Alex said an individual is weakened because they are always competing with one another to attain the next best device or house, etc. Alexis de Tocqueville said, “It is odd to watch with that feverish ardor the Americans pursue prosperity and how they are ever tormented by the shadowy suspicion that they may not have chosen to the shortest route to get it.” In that quote Alexis is saying that the pressure from wanting to “be the best” and wanting to get the best causes the Americans to torment themselves because they are never able to rest. It weakens and blinds the American because they fail to acknowledge all they do have because they are always in competition to get the “best new thing”. Alexis said, “Americans cleave to things of this world as if assured that they will never die, and yet are in such a rush to snatch any that come within their reach, as id expecting to stop living before they have relished them. They clutch everything but hold nothing fast, and so lose grip as they hurry after some new delight.” The quote explains that Americans do not relish what they have. The Americans are weakened because they lack acknowledgement about everything they have, and because they torment themselves because they are always competing with another person for the next “best thing”.

Question 5: Does Tocqueville think Americans are restless because they don’t know what they want or because what they want is not attainable?
Response: Tocqueville thinks that Americans are restless because what they want is not attainable. He said, “Among democratic peoples men easily obtain a certain equality, but they will never get the sort of equality they long for.” Tocqueville is saying that there is the general equality that all men share (rules of government) but there is another equality, which is not attainable for some men. Then Tocqueville said, “That is a quality which ever retreats before them without getting quite out of sight, and as it retreats it beckons them on to pursue. Every instant they think they will catch it, and each time it slips through their fingers. They see it close enough to know its charms, but they do not get near enough to enjoy it, and they will be dead before they have fully relished its delights.” In that quote Tocqueville is talking about equality in a sense of one man wanting what another man has. He is saying that an American is restless because they get close to having what another man has but then it slips right through their fingers. Every time the American thinks that they all the same things as another man something new comes along (“every instant they think they will catch it, and each time it slips through their fingers”).