3 ms·
Toqueville wrote about American believing in themselves, but not in isolation. > Americans of all ages, all conditions, all minds constantly unite. Not only do
by skybrian 1y ago
Toqueville wrote about American believing in themselves, but not in isolation.
> Americans of all ages, all conditions, all minds constantly unite. Not only do they have commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but they also have a thousand other kinds: religious, moral, grave, futile, very general and very particular, immense and very small; Americans use associations to give fêtes, to found seminaries, to build inns, to raise churches, to distribute books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; in this manner they create hospitals, prisons, schools. Finally, if it is a question of bringing to light a truth or developing a sentiment with the support of a great example, they associate. Everywhere that, at the head of a new undertaking, you see the government in France and a great lord in England, count on it that you will perceive an association in the United States.
But that was based on need, back before a lot of modern institutions existed. Where public schools didn’t exist yet, there were private academies. Before insurance companies, there were mutual aid societies.
Nowadays there are businesses and other organizations serving every need, though sometimes only if you have enough money.
- dullcrisp 1y agoBusinesses are associations. They just unfortunately come with a lot of feudal assumptions these days.
- Nasrudith 1y agoPlease, I am begging you. Research actual feudalism.
- bell-cot 1y agoYeah. And universities are (generally) far more feudal than 99% of modern western businesses ever want to be. Which is not to say that's a good idea. Nor that it's working out, longer-term, for the universities.
- sanderjd 1y agoA better comment would assume that this person has indeed researched feudalism and would criticize the analogy based on that assumption.
- anovikov 1y agoFeudalism wasn't at all about people. It was about land. That's the principal difference with slaveholding: in a slaveholding society, principal asset is people, and the land is usually cheap, just worthless unless you own slaves who can cultivate it - it is the people who are the limited resource. In a feudal society, it is the land - if you have land, people will come - there was no point to instill gulag-like conditions on them - land was limited, people were not - so there was nowhere for them to run.
- dullcrisp 1y agoI was referring to the rigidly hierarchical management structure at most companies and how there’s a worker/manager/executive class structure that functions roughly based on fealty. It was a rough metaphor maybe but I wasn’t talking about slavery.
- bluecheese452 1y agoIn feudalism peasants were not free to leave their lord or his land.