Essay 77: How An Excessive Love Of Prosperity Can Harm That Very Prosperity (Vol. 2 Pt. 2 Ch. 16)
Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner
The essays in our study reference the following edition of Democracy In America: University of Chicago Press – 1st edition translated by Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Today’s essay references pages 521 (start at chp. 16 heading) – 522 (stop at chap. 17 heading) of this edition of Democracy in America.
In the preceding chapter, De Tocqueville argued that religion serves to moderate materialism in democratic societies. Here in chapter 16, he again explored the social utility of religious beliefs, but it almost seems that he wished to give a word of caution to the reader, as if to say that while democratic cultures have a natural drift toward materialism, material goods are still desirable and necessary.
We may summarize the argument of the chapter as follows. De Tocqueville explains that the ability to promote the goods of the body is closely connected to the health of the soul. Indeed, human beings differ from the lower animals in that we use our souls and our rational faculties to create material goods. We do not use only instinct, as with beasts. Moreover, with the soul, we multiply these enjoyments of the body. One can provide for the needs of the body in proportion as the soul is strong; as the soul is weakened, it is less able to provide for the needs of the body. In a healthy political community, the souls of citizens must remain strong, if only to put its force behind the necessary activity of providing for the needs of the body.
What De Tocqueville stated somewhat abstractly, we can try here to make somewhat more concrete and more succinct: if, as De Tocqueville feared, democratic citizens sometimes are consumed with the pursuit of more and more material things, it can dry up and wilt the moral aspects of our nature. But this could paradoxically erode the ability to produce the goods that we need or at least want, for production is not an activity unrelated to our moral qualities.
To understand a healthy economy, it may be necessary to look beyond aggregate data like unemployment rates, gross domestic product, or consumer spending. While government policies and aggregate data may be helpful metrics, a healthy economy and political community emerge also from the habits of people who live their daily lives in healthy cultures in which they have a sense of responsibility, a willingness to help others charitably, the discipline to use thrift and hard work when necessary, and sufficient courage to take the kinds of risks necessary to start a business and to grow it. (De Tocqueville addressed a few of these themes in his fascinating little book Memoirs on Pauperism.)
In the chapter for essay 77, De Tocqueville returned once more to a thread running through the entire book, and it is one which he will elaborate more in the concluding chapters of Volume II: a healthy political order is one in which citizens govern themselves, not only through political actions like voting, but also in a broader way that involves the exercise of those habits of life that make it possible for a community to secure those things necessary for a good life (even if they are not the point of a good life) rather than relying for that provision upon some distant and often impersonal government.
Bill Reddinger is Associate Professor of Government at Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA, where he teaches courses in political philosophy and American politics. He directs the Lincoln Program in America’s Founding Principles, an educational initiative that offers seminars and lectures related to America’s founding principles and history for Regent University students, for teachers, and for others in southeastern Virginia. He is author of Political Thinkers for Our Time, forthcoming from NIU Press.
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Hello! I’m Janine Turner, founder of Constituting America!
“To understand a healthy economy, it may be necessary to look beyond aggregate data like unemployment rates, gross domestic product, or consumer spending. While government policies and aggregate data may be helpful metrics, a healthy economy and political community emerge also from the habits of people who live their daily lives in healthy cultures in which they have a sense of responsibility, a willingness to help others charitably, the discipline to use thrift and hard work when necessary, and sufficient courage to take the kinds of risks necessary to start a business and to grow it. (De Tocqueville addressed a few of these themes in his fascinating little book
Memoirs on Pauperism.)”
I find this paragraph from Mr Reddinger’s essay intriguing! “Habits of people who live their lives in healthy cultures!” What is a healthy culture to you? Or better yet, a healthy local community?