This week I was in a meeting called by… an archbishop awaiting the cardinal hat, in which the Marquis de Lafayette was named and that made my imagination fly. France’s support for the American revolution is interesting. As an example, there is a beautiful equestrian statue of Lafayette in Mount Vernon , opposite to the main entrance of Peabody Conservatory that… has not yet been canceled. My imagination flew to Tocqueville. The French supported the American Revolution because of its strategic interest against England, but there is much more than that geopolitical reading. Support for ideas of freedom was sincere, and Rousseau was a source of inspiration to the fathers of the American constitution. There is a very interesting book by Helena Rosenblatt (The Lost History of Liberalism) in which she details the relationship of French and American intellectual circles. Benjamin Franklin was the first American ambassador to be recognized as such throughout the world. And I continue with Tocqueville because I find his appreciations interesting. Three of the insights that excite me the most are these:
1- American democracy will last until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with public money
2-Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in freedom, socialism seeks equality in moderation and servitude
3-Americans are so in love with equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
Unfortunately the three things have come true or are about to. As an example, the latest unemployment numbers confirm that the government pays people to stay at home. That is the perfect mass to follow all the mandates of the government since they depend on their crumbs. Socialism is the achievement the moral rottenness of the individual with the means of the state. The American desire for equality has always been inalienable and positive, but it has been equality in opportunities, never in results. In fact, equality at the start line implicitly looks for different results. The socialism, already here, has changed the place of equality and has put it at the end of the race. The description of inequality today is in the result and that is the argument for any government action. The most recent example is the project of the outgoing mayor of New York, a mediocre and corrupt component of this bureaucracy of parties that feeds incompetent, lazy and generally people who would never have a career in private business, is about to cancel the “gifted and talented” program in the school system. This program gives high IQ boys and girls opportunities to learn more and better. It is giving opportunities to those who can take advantage of them. But in this world of mediocrity and envy, this program is not “inclusive” What? 75% of those admitted are White and Asian, the rest are Latino and African American. It should be noted that this news is always given with the following way “despite making up the% of the population, African Americans and Latinos only make up 25% of those admitted to this program.” All these Pravda journalists must have read “The framing decisions and the psychology of choice” by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kanehman (1981). This wording immediately leads to the revolution against the “oppressive system” but … wait a minute. The program is accessed after a multiple-choice test that is the same for everyone. What is the problem? There is systemic racism…The level of intellectual and moral filth of the left knows no limits. And unfortunately Alexis de Tocqueville already saw it almost 200 years ago. It is curious that the road to freedom comes through work, education, failures and the difference in results. Even sports have been corrupted in schools with trophies for participating. Sport is a battle without death in which you learn to work, to win and to lose. When you learn to lose, the winner is respected and admired because everyone played with the same rules. There are only trophies for the winners, the rest go back home empty handed, and that is very good. You can only be free when you have weapons to think about reality and make decisions. Approving everyone, gaining access according to skin color quotas is the opposite of what MLK said “I have a dream that my four young children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. ” Amartya Sen already in 1999 with his book “Development and freedom” explains that freedom of the individual is central for development and for this system called democracy that some recent president cataloged as” Let’s recognize that democracy has always been complicated. ” when the populace refused to applaud his designs.
We are doomed following the Pied Piper of Equality. Meanwhile, read … before they start to cancel ideas they don’t like, and the books where they are explained.
References
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville 1835
Development as Freedom by Amrtya Sen 1999
The lost History of Liberalism by Helena Rosenblatt 2018
The framing decisions and the psychology of choice ”by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kanehman (1981).
You can download it here: https://www.uzh.ch/cmsssl/suz/dam/jcr:ffffffff-fad3-547b-ffff-ffffe54d58af/10.18_kahneman_tversky_81.pdf