Alexis de
Tocqueville, French statesman, historian, and social philosopher,
wrote Democracy in America in 1835, documenting his analysis
of what had once made America great. All
of the quotations in this chapter have been taken from de Tocqueville’s book. It
has been described as "the most comprehensive and penetrating
analysis of the relationship between character and society
in America that has ever been written" (Robert Bellah).
De Tocqueville
wanted to understand why the American Revolution and American democracy has
proven to be such a success. According to de Tocqueville, freedom and
morality both found their American incarnation in Christianity:
·
Religion in America…must be regarded
as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does
not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it.
De Tocqueville
had been well-acquainted with the demands for freedom and equality that
had arisen from his own French revolution, which ironically had entailed the
hatred and murder of the clergy. This revolution
had confidently sought to push aside anything that stood in its
way. However, with the advantage
of decades of hindsight, another revolution was something
that the French wanted to avoid at all costs. With the tumultuous lessons
of his homeland still vivid in his mind, de Tocqueville wrote:
·
The safeguard of morality is religion,
and morality is the best security of law and the surest pledge of
freedom.
He therefore
appreciated the moral constraints that he found so ubiquitously associated with
democracy in the United States:
·
I do not question that the great
austerity [self-control] of manners that is observable in the United
States arises, in the first instance, from religious faith...its influence over
the mind of woman is supreme, and women are the protectors of morals. There is
certainly no country in the world where the tie of marriage is more
respected than in America or where conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily
appreciated...
Over and
over again, he found that the fruitful expression of democracy was
inseparable from its underlying Christian roots:
·
In the United States the influence of
religion is not confined to the manners, but it extends to the intelligence of
the people...Christianity, therefore, reigns without obstacle, by
universal consent; the consequence is, as I have before observed, that every
principle of the moral world is fixed and determinate.
De Tocqueville’s
glowing observations of Christian faith and conduct did not amount to a claim that
Christianity had rooted out all evils. It certainly hadn’t….but neither had any
other religion or government. Slavery remained a troubling
example. But in view of the many moral failures in every nation and the
worldwide acceptance of slavery, this one failure should not be used
to discredit the entirety of the Christian influence on America.
According to
de Tocqueville, the greatness of the United States was the outgrowth of what
the churches were preaching:
·
I sought for the key to the greatness
and genius of America in her harbors...in her fertile fields and boundless
forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system
and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in
her matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and
heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her
genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever
ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
Have we
ceased to be good? There is certainly a lot of talk about goodness, virtue-signaling,
and atoning for one’s “sins” by taking-a-knee, but are these the values that de
Tocqueville had observed, the values that build civilizations?
Historian Ariel
Durant had written, “A great civilization is not conquered from without until
it has destroyed itself from within.” Her historian husband and co-author, Will
Durant, added: “Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty and dies
with chaos.” https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/civilization-quotes
From where does the chaos arise? The
answer is really quite simple. Robert Kennedy had stated:
·
We know that we cannot live together
without rules which tell us what is right and what is wrong, what is permitted
and what is prohibited. We know that it is law which enables men to live together,
that creates order out of chaos. We know that law is the glue that holds
civilization together.
What happens when we no
longer value and respect truth, equality, justice, and law, when the glue of our
shared Christian-Western values has dissolved? The Roebling
Steel Mill was founded by Charles Roebling, son of John A. Roebling, which
provided the steel for the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as
numerous other bridges including one over Niagara Falls.
At its
heyday, it employed 10,000 at the Roebling company town, where Charles had
designed the houses and rented them to his employees. The fancier houses were
designed for upper management. However, even the most unskilled workers lived
in respectable quarters.
Admittedly,
the company was somewhat paternalistic. It had its own police, schools, ball
teams, a tavern and medical care was available. Roebling even allowed competing
stores access and paid their newly-immigrated employees in US dollars, giving
them the option of exercising choice. However, the employee had to sign a
contract agreeing that he could be discharged from Roebling for rowdiness.
The
Roeblings admitted that their intention was not to build the ideal community.
However, they had envisioned a sustainable community.
Joseph Stalin
had built what was supposed to be the ideal community, Nowa Huta, in 1949, to
rival neighboring Krakov, Poland. It contained everything needed to nurture a
community where all would live equally as brothers, in harmony. It included a
steel mill, which became more productive than any other in Poland.
The
walls of the apartments were purposely made thin so that each family would be
able to hear the doings of the neighboring families - no barriers! Indoctrination
meetings designed to raise up the ideal new man were compulsory to ensure a
"workers' paradise."
However,
this experiment was far from ideal. This paradise came crashingly to an end
when the workers could only be paid with vodka and sugar.
In
contrast, even during the Depression, Roebling never forced anyone out of
company housing when they couldn't pay the rent.
Although
Roebling sold their mill and town in the mid-fifties, most of its present
residents are descendants of the families of former employees. Each, to whom we
talked, spoke well of what their families had communicated about the Roebling
experience.
Why had
it been such a positive experience? Not only had the workers been treated
fairly and equally, their various ethnicities and faiths were treated
respectfully. Czechs, Hungarians, and Poles were each allowed to have their own
enclaves, social groups, and churches.
Despite
these differences in class, ethnicity, and religion, it is reported that
everyone got along well, each respecting their respective differences.
How
could this be? From what we were able to understand from our visit, it seemed
that each community felt safe. The company guaranteed just standards. There
were no reports of favoritism based upon historical designations between the
"oppressed" and the "oppressors." The only distinctions
were based on behavior and job performance, distinctions that seemingly were
accepted.
From
all indications, peace prevailed at Roebling. However, Nowa Huta presented
another portrait. Wikipedia reports:
· During the 1980s, Nowa Huta
became a city of many demonstrations and violent street protests of the
Solidarity movement, fought by the police. At that time, almost 29,000 of the
38,000 workers of the then Lenin Steelworks belonged to the Solidarity trade
union.
It was
hardly a paradise, but why not? What went wrong? Perhaps communism did not
start out with a correct estimation of humanity? Perhaps we are not as
malleable as they had thought. The “new man” never materialized.
Whatever
we manage, we must first understand. We cannot manage a business well unless we
understand the people who we manage. We need room for individual initiative and
the freedom to grow a garden or to improve our lodgings without being condemned
as “bourgeois.”
We need
the freedom to think what we want, to say what we want (within limits), and to
worship as we please. In other words, human thriving requires human rights.
However,
the authorities at Nowa Huta were convinced that they could micro-manage human
affairs. They knew best what others should be thinking, believing, and saying.
Meanwhile, they robbed the workers of their welfare, initiative, and dignity.
Dis-empowering the people, they had disempowered the economy. Consequently,
communism has been an unmitigated flop, maintained only by oppression and fear.
Roebling
didn't last either. However, it gave many a start to a better life, leaving a
legacy of many grateful people. Communism has also left its legacy - a scorched
earth and the slaughter of the millions who resisted their
"paradise."
