That The Aspect Of Society In The United States Is At Once Excited And Monotonous 11-7-2010

 [Continuing my pretrial detention notes on De Tocqueville's Democracy In America, this one being based on Chapter XVII: That The Aspect Of Society In The United States Is At Once Excited And Monotonous. What else was I supposed to be done with my time? MY PO was asked a variation of this question, about what else was I supposed to do with all my time being imprisoned other than to write, and I never got an answer. I infer the government's position is  I was to do nothing except vegetate on my prison bunk. I hope you find it useful - more useful than if I had done my best vegetable imitation. sch 11/5/23.]

Condensing the chapter sharply, de Tocqueville found the struggle for making money kept us excited but also boring. Well, that is true. Sinclair Lewis satirized the same idea in Main Street and Babbitt. Making money excites the action in Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, as well as Superfly.

But we have had our reactions to capitalism's reduction of people's humanity. Thoreau trotted off to Walden Pond; there were communes then and now; we have had our expatriate beatniks and hippies; and we showed Henry Ford we wanted more than black cars. We have also had the rise of socialism, Marxism, and psychiatry. They all seem to be a reaction to the demands of capitalism.

In an orderly and constituted democracy like the United States, where men cannot enrich themselves by war, by public office, or by political confiscation, the love of wealth mainly drives them into business and manufactures. Although these pursuits often bring about great commotions and disasters, they cannot prosper without strictly regular habits and a long routine of petty uniform acts. The stronger the passion is, the more regular are these habits, and the more uniform are these acts. It may be said that it is the vehemence of their desires which makes the Americans so methodical; it perturbs their minds, but it disciplines their lives.

Reading "petty uniform acts" made me think of the Delco-Remy (and Warner Gear) assembly lines, and how they drove workers to drink. The Soviets had a similar problem; a hard liquor culture was a doubtful help. Either side of that line end in a world where people are cogs in a machine run by men in gray. (An image stolen from The Kinks and Ray Davies from Muswell Hillbillies and Arthur.) We are all looking for a way out that trap who have not been mashed up in the gears. I went crazy.

I think there alternatives [But these alternatives did not come to me until I went crazy, failed at suicide, put myself in a position where suicide was not a choice, and I sobered up enough to take stock in what I had available to me. Pay attention that is a lot of work, with a cost I will pay until I die. sch 11/5/23.] Democratic capitalism might work, that is one which uplifts society, if it needs support from society.

sch