|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: property of the father of a family is scanty, his son and himself
constantly live in the same place, and share the same
occupations: habit and necessity bring them together, and force
them to hold constant communication: the inevitable consequence
is a sort of familiar intimacy, which renders authority less
absolute, and which can ill be reconciled with the external forms
of respect. Now in democratic countries the class of those who
are possessed of small fortunes is precisely that which gives
strength to the notions, and a particular direction to the
manners, of the community. That class makes its opinions
preponderate as universally as its will, and even those who are
|
