Why the Americans Appear So Restless Amid Their Well-Being: Election Day Thoughts

Alexis de Tocqueville came from France and traveled across the United States in 1831, and several years later published his reflections about Americans and America in the classic Democracy in America. In volume 2, published in 1840, he titled Chapter 13, “Why the Americans Appear So Restless Amid Their Well-Being.” In the chapter, he meditates on why the Americans, many of whom seem so very well-off by the French standards of the time, nonetheless often seem so restless and melancholy. He points to a combination of materialism, the opportunities for economic and mobility that lead to fear of missing out, and the way in which a desire for equality can sharpen itself and strengthen these other factors. As the US approaches Election Day tomorrow, Tocqueville offers food for reflection. In particular, I’ve long been intrigued by his comment: “When inequality is the common law of a society, the greatest inequalities do not strike the eye. When all is nearly level, the least inequalities…