2. Societies devoted to equality weaken the individual because it makes harder for anyone person to get ahead because they are all the same. Tocqueville states, “ When men are more or less equal and are following the same path, it is very difficult for any of them to walk faster and get out beyond the uniform crowd surrounding and hemming them in”. In other words this means that if everyone wants the same thing and they all have the same opportunity to get then they will all be competing and this will make it almost impossible to achieve. Tocqueville says that it is imposable for life to perfectly equal and that even it something happens that makes it so things are equal then there will still be differences in intelligence. Tocqueville also notes that in societies that are based on inequality that the greatest of inequalities don’t attract much attention but in a society based on equality the slightest inequality attracts attention. This is why societies devoted to equality weaken the individual.
5. Tocqueville thinks that Americans are restless because they know what they want but it is not obtainable. Tocqueville states “That is an equality which ever retreats before them without getting quite out of sight, and as it retreats it beckons them on to pursue. Every instant they think they will catch it, and each time it slips through their fingers. They see it close enough to know its charms, but they do not get close enough to enjoy it, and they will be dead before they have fully relished its delights”. This means that we set are goals to high to a level that is imposable to reach and every time we get close we set the standards even higher and it gets away again. According to Tocqueville this is why Americans are never happy even though we have so much.
