Quote of the Day (Alexis de Tocqueville, on How Despotism Might Come to a Democracy)

“I want to imagine with what new features despotism could be produced in the world: I see an innumerable crowd of like and equal men who revolve on themselves without repose, procuring the small and vulgar pleasures with which they fill their souls. Each of them, withdrawn and apart, is like a stranger to the destiny of all the others: his children and his particular friends form the whole human species for him; as for dwelling with his fellow citizens, he is beside them, but he does not see them; he touches them and does not feel them; he exists only in himself and for himself alone, and if a family still remains for him, one can at least say that he no longer has a native country.”—French diplomat, political scientist, and historian  Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), “What Kind of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear,” Democracy in America, original publication 1835-40, translated by Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop (2012)