GOVT-105 FA2 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-14: Selfishness, Aristocracy, Spiritualism
31 Mar 2017
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Govt-105 - textbook note - democracy in america, vol ii part ii. The ideal of democracy is that if everyone is equal no one will have tyrannical power and everyone will be free. There can be political equality w/o political freedom. Everyone is equal except the person in charge. Hard to destroy equality, easy to let freedom escape. Attached to equality because they believe it will last forever. The taste for freedom arises only after conditions begin to equalize. Since freedom is newer and not in mores it is less loved. Democratic people will tolerate poverty and enslavement before aristocracy. Selfishness is a passionate love of self that brings people to prefer themselves to everything. Individualism is a reflective sentiment that disposes citizens to isolate themselves from the group with family and friends and create smaller societies. Selfishness destroys all virtues while individualism first destroys public virtues and then all others. Aristocracy binds people to their fellow citizens by class.
