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It's very scandalous, but as I said, people will defend Tocqueville because they like what he says about them. Quid pro quo.
by RedCondor 3y ago
It's very scandalous, but as I said, people will defend Tocqueville because they like what he says about them. Quid pro quo.
- mytailorisrich 3y agoI don't think that stating something broadly factual can be scandalous. The language is very dated but that's what happens after 200 years.
- brookst 3y agoI think the person you're replying to is interpreting "superiority over all the other races" to mean moral / intrinsic superiority, and I think you're reading it as meaning superior economic / military power. I tend to agree with your reading.
- RedCondor 3y ago>the individual, placed with us, by his vices and his ignorance, on the lowest step of society, is yet the first among savages. I think Tocqueville speaks very clearly for himself, and I don't how if there exist mental gymnastics dexterous enough to try to make this sentence mean anything other than what it clearly means.
- brookst 3y agoFair enough. I think you are either unaware that language changes over time, or choosing to pretend to be unaware to justify outrage. But you do you!
- prepend 3y agoI’m curious why you think it’s scandalous. Do you disagree that Europe was most powerful at the time of writing? I think it makes total sense to say this isn’t just or appropriate. But to say that Europe was powerful is not scandalous. The section seems written with humility and more of a theme of “I’m not sure why Europe is so powerful and luck is involved” than a more unpleasant version that could have said something like “Europe is the best because the rest of the world is a bunch of monkeys” but that’s not what he wrote.