Of The Gravity of the Americans 11-6-2010

 Oh, I do find this an alien idea:

...But it must not be supposed that, in the midst of all their toils, the people who live in democracies think themselves to be pitied; the contrary is remarked to be the case. No men are fonder of their own condition. Life would have no relish for them if they were delivered from the anxieties which harass them, and they show more attachment to their cares than aristocratic nations to their pleasures.

Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy In America, Book Three – Of The Gravity Of The Americans, And Why It Does Not Prevent Them From Often Committing Inconsiderate Actions

Never mind my prison bound status, for most of my life I felt more attuned to Ralph Waldo Emerson's men living lives of quiet desperation. [10/16: Memory failed me there, as I found today. The quote belongs to Thoreau.sch] I think prison will offer far simpler anxieties than ever I felt during my adult life. I will miss the opportunities of business and be ashamed of living off the tax dollars of others, but the struggle and strife of making a living I will not miss. I sought self-destruction for the hope of a peaceful grave when no one would be depending on me, where I would have no concerns of success or failure. Prison doe offer security for many. I see here men my age,a nd older emerging from the federal Bureau of Prisons who cannot cope towards the freer form of a halfway house; they have a great anxiety bordering on terror. This place of incarceration lacks the rigid form of existence imposed upon them by prison life.

...Under absolute monarchies tempered by the customs and manners of the country, their spirits are often cheerful and even, because as they have some freedom and a good deal of security, they are exempted from the most important cares of life; but all free peoples are serious, because their minds are habitually absorbed by the contemplation of some dangerous or difficult purpose. This is more especially the case amongst those free nations which form democratic communities....

Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy In America, Book Three – Of The Gravity Of The Americans, And Why It Does Not Prevent Them From Often Committing Inconsiderate Actions 

I look forward, wondering if I will not be as muddle-headed as those I see here. I will return to a world offering no security in any form, and with having the status of felon and SO. A world I see actively hostile to a moral leper like me.

I think this desire for security from worldly anxiety is widespread. The desire may even be stronger than from before the Great Recession, but I will not say it is a new feeling. I think this anxiety has had a great latency that has lashed out regularly since 1950, if not 1973 or 1968. I read sometime, somewhere, about a supervolcano lurking under Yellowstone National Park. What we have seen is not the volcano but the geysers - not even this pas telection has not been volcanic.

[11/5/23: Oh, boy, that last paragraph chills me. What we saw in reaction to the 2021 threatened to be volcanic. What happens next year? Unlike magma, we can defuse the politics of anxiety. sch.]

I cannot say who more correctly described the American of 1831 - Thoreau or de Tocqueville - but I favor Thoreau [Following my corrected attribution of the quote above. sch 11/5]. We certainly live in a country, a society, full of anxiety and depression. We live in a country where we are all too worn out by the fear of losing our place in the queue to create a better, more hopeful place.

 Then there are in all classes a very large number of men constantly occupied with the serious affairs of the government; and those whose thoughts are not engaged in the direction of the commonwealth are wholly engrossed by the acquisition of a private fortune. Amongst such a people a serious demeanor ceases to be peculiar to certain men, and becomes a habit of the nation.

 Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy In America, Book Three – Of The Gravity Of The Americans, And Why It Does Not Prevent Them From Often Committing Inconsiderate Actions

Our politicians and their demographer know how little attention gets paid to serious issues. You will pay for this habit of inattention. I foresee the next two years as creating more buyers remorse from the voting public. [Okay, I got that wrong; the Tea Party did not quite go away, did it? sch 11/5/2023.] Electoral reverses maintaining the aura of oscillation will help no one. The time has come for serious people to start being serious. The seriousness must come and be of yourselves, not of following leaders. Until you take yourselves seriously, leaders are a danger best avoided in favor of watching parking meters.

I admit letting my own problems distracted me until I destroyed any chance of being useful. I see no chance of reconstituting any usefulness in 2022. [Even when I made the effort at being useful, all I reached were deaf ears; see the posts under the topic of "Anderson". sch 11/5/23] Whatever usefulness I retain must be exercised before I am swallowed up by the Bureau of Prisons. I can hopep the depressives read these missives are a call for them to get treatment; that Americans do try building a better society; that teachers are welcomed while refusing submission to leaders .

sch

[I started this weeks ago, got distracted, and am surprised today to how closely I am to the anniversary of its creation.Being set for publishing tomorrow, I have hit the date.  The past 13 years did not turn out as I feared, and they are worse. sch 11/5/2023.