Adult Education Fall 2012 –
Tocqueville: Christianity and Culture in America
CLASS 4 – OCTOBER 7: BEYOND INDIVIDUAL V. COMMUNITY
I.
Which is more important: the individual or the community?
a. The community rejected for the sake of the individual: “I am done with the monster of
‘We,’ the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame. And now I see the
face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men
came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one
word: ‘I.’” – Ayn Rand, Anthem
b. The individual submerged into the community: “The constant will of all the members of the
state is the general will; through it they are citizens and free. When a law is proposed in the
general assembly, what is asked of them is not precisely whether they approve or reject, but
whether or not is conforms to the general will that is theirs. […] When, therefore, the opinion
contrary to mine prevails, this proves merely that I was in error, and that what I took to be the
general will was not so. If my private opinion had prevailed, I would have done something
other than what I had wanted. In that case I would not have been free.” – Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, On the Social Contract
On Tocqueville’s analysis, individualism and communitarianism and two faces of a single
problem that threatens democratic societies.
II.
a. Delinkage isolates individuals and can lead to individualism. “Individualism is a calm and
considered feeling which disposes each citizen to isolate himself from the mass of his fellows
and withdraw into the circle of family and friends; with this little society formed to his taste,
he gladly leaves the greater society to look after itself.” (2.2.2, 507).1
i. Individualism is one of the most distinctive dangers of the democratic age.
Individualism is based on “misguided judgment rather than depraved feeling”—
specifically, a narrow conception of self-interest that one might call selfish interest
(2.2.2, 506). Tocqueville calls “the spirit of individual independence” the “most
dangerous enemy” or religion (2.1.5, 449).
1. “Egoism sterilizes the seeds of every virtue; individualism at first only dams the
spring of public virtues, but in the long run it attacks and destroys all the others
too and finally merges in egoism. Egoism is a vice as old as the world. […]
Individualism is of democratic origin and threatens to grow as conditions get
more equal” (2.2.2, 507).
b. If individualism stretches too loose the bonds of society, there will be a communitarian
backlash.
i. The atomization of humanity is unpleasant. The delinkage of the democratic age
leads us to experience ourselves to be alienated from both community and creation, and
fills us with anxiety.
1
All citations from Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, ed. J.P. Mayer, trans. George Lawrence (New York: Harper
and Row, 1968) are listed in the text in the format volume.part.chapter, page.
ii. Democratic peoples will be tempted to use the power of the state to create the
community and security that they lack. Making the central government the locus of
community only isolates each individual further beneath the pervasive state.
1. “I see an innumerable multitude of men, alike and equal, constantly circling
around in pursuit of the petty and banal pleasures with which they glut their
souls. Each one of them, withdrawn into himself, is almost unaware of the fate
of the rest. […] Over this kind of men stands an immense, protective power
which is alone responsible for securing their enjoyment and watching over their
fate. That power is absolute, thoughtful of detail, orderly, provident, and gentle.
It would resemble a parental authority if, father-like, it tried to prepare its
charges for a man’s life, but on the contrary, it only tries to keep them in
perpetual childhood” (2.4.6, 692).
III.
Beyond individual v. community is the city of God: self, God, and neighbor choosing to be
bound in covenant.
a. Religion draws us away from comfort and toward our neighbor. If we are not draw out of
self and toward our neighbor, we center our lives on consumer comforts. Moreover, concern
for abstractions like the community or humanity does not educe like face-to-face relationships;
ideas are a poor substitute for relationships.
i. “One must admit that equality, while it brings great benefits to mankind, opens the
door, as I hope to show later, to very dangerous instincts. It tends to isolate men from
each other so that each thinks only of himself. It lays the soul open to an inordinate
love of material pleasure. The greatest advantage of religions is to inspire diametrically
contrary urges. Every religion places the object of man’s desires outside and beyond
worldly goods and naturally lifts the soul into regions far above the realm of the senses.
Every religion also imposes on each man some obligations toward mankind, to be
performed in common with the rest of mankind, and so draws him away, from time to
time, from thinking about himself. […] Thus religious peoples are naturally strong just
at the point where democratic peoples are weak.” (2.1.5, 444-445).
ii. “Feelings and ideas are renewed, the heart enlarged, and the understanding developed
only by the reciprocal action of men one upon another” (2.2.5, 515)
b. The antidote to individualism is self-interest rightly understood. Individualism breeds a
narrow and shallow self-interest that cuts off God and neighbor. Our self-interest is rightly
understood only through faith in Christ and practical experience with face-to-face
relationships. Because our natural ties are gone, the eternal choice that has always confronted
humans has become more obvious: will we bind ourselves in covenant to God and neighbor?
i. “In the United States there is hardly any talk of the beauty of virtue. But they maintain
that virtue is useful and prove it every day. American moralists do not pretend that one
must sacrifice himself for his fellows because it is a fine thing to do so. But they boldly
assert that such sacrifice is as necessary for the man who makes it is as for the
beneficiaries” (2.2.8, 525).
ii. “If the doctrine of self-interest properly understood were concerned with this world
only, that would not be nearly enough. For there are a great many sacrifices which can
only be rewarded in the next.” (2.2.9, 528).
Our natural bonds have fallen away; we must now choose to bind ourselves together in covenant. The
meaning of history is delinkage because the meaning of history is the city of God. We will either
voluntarily relink with God and neighbor, or we will isolate ourselves now and forever.
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