POLSCI 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Wage Labour, Double Consciousness, James Henry Hammond
Document Summary
Feb. 25: the problem of democratic despotism 18:57. Son of ancient french nobility destroyed by the revolution. First political writer to treat democracy as a serious (rather than aberrant) political form. People use his ideas to criticize america today. Wrote: to warn us about what the dangers of equality are. We are all workers, so to some extent all of our lives look the same. Everyone"s days are mundane in pretty similar ways. We are very attached to the idea that no one is above anyone else. We have no respect for our betters because we think, frankly, that there is no such thing. We do not look up to people who display excellence but say that they are full of themselves. Lose the sense of challenging ourselves, don"t realize our liberty is being stripped away from us. What matters to you is that you do shop . We can"t stand the notion that someone is better than us.