On American Minds

“I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.”

Alexis de Tocqueville, in Democracy in America

In Democracy in America, published in 1835, Tocqueville wrote of the New World and its burgeoning democratic order. Observing from the perspective of a detached social scientist, Tocqueville wrote of his travels through America (both in the United States and Canada) in the early 19th century when the market revolution, Western expansion, and Jacksonian democracy were radically transforming the fabric of American life. He saw democracy as an equation that balanced liberty and equality, concern for the individual as well as the community. A critic of individualism, Tocqueville thought that association, the coming together of people for common purpose, would bind Americans to an idea of nation larger than selfish desires, thus making a civil society which wasn’t exclusively dependent on the state.

[tags]alexis de tocqueville, intellectual, reflections on america, quotation, quote, independence of mind, freedom of discussion, freedom of speech, democracy in america, civil society[/tags]

Americans Better Pay Attention

“Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.”

H.L. Mencken

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[tags]h.l. mencken, quotation, quotes, government, democracy, american politics[/tags]

Take that, World!

“America… just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

See Also: Wired Does Iraq and Horror, Enter Nader Stage Left?, We Cannot Afford War, Are Independents Really Just Tools of the Press?, The War and the Damage Done, and IAEA Iran Report Released Today.

[tags]hunter s thompson, thoughts on war, american mentality, united states, gun ownership, world dominance, imperialism, bellicose, iraq, iran, afghanistan, middle east invasions[/tags]

Why Would They Negotiate With Us?

If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with [tag]Israel[/tag]. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been [tag]anti-Semitism[/tag], the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have [tag]stolen their country[/tag]. Why would they accept that?

— [tag]David Ben Gurion[/tag] on the Israeli/[tag]Palestinian[/tag] [tag]Conflict[/tag] (via dmiessler)

See Also: Termination of “Israel”- Qur’anic Fact, German professors: ‘Nazis helped establish Israel’, Waiting for It, beware, Get on With It, and So let’s have dialogue?.

The Power of the Bank

“I sincerely believe that [tag]banking establishments[/tag] are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”

– [tag]Thomas Jefferson[/tag]

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See also: [tag]Credit Default[/tag] Swaps and Financial WMDs, Subprime to Prime, the Whole Credit Structure has been Hit, McNomics, The Subprime Mortgage situation explained, Morgan Stanley chief takes just 800K for 2007, Deets Emerge on the Bear Subprime Criminal Probe.