chiropractor's lament v2; not exactly off the subject

[Guest guest]

more DeTocqueville

(circa 1835)

[has much changed?]

Part II, Book I

The Philosophical Method of the American

I think that in no country of the civilized world is

less attention paid to philosophy than in the U.S...

.... in most of the operations of mind,

each American appeals only to the individual effort of

his own understanding...Everyone shuts himself up in

his own breast, and affects from that point to judge

the world. ..

Thus they fall to denying what they cannot

comprehend; which leaves them but little faith for

whatever is extraordinary, and an almost insurmountable distaste

for whatever is supernatural...

Men are no longer bound together by ideas, but by

interests; and it would seem as if human opinions were

reduced to a sort of intellectual dust, scattered on

every side, unable to collect, unable to cohere..

..his mind in perpetual unrest, which would prevent him from penetrating

into the

depth of any truth, or of grappling his mind firmly to any

conviction. His intellect would be at once independent

and powerless. He must therefore....adopt

many opinions w/o discussion..

(people) who live at a period of social equality.... commonly seek the

sources of truth in

themselves... (as such, the Americans) readiness to believe the

multitude increases, and opinion more than ever

mistress of the world. Not only is common opinion the only

guide which private judgment retains amongst a

democratic people, but amongst such people it

possesses a power infinitely beyond what it has, elsewhere.....

In the U.S., the majority undertakes to supply a

multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of

individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity

of forming opinions of their own. Everybody there

adopts great numbers of theories, on philosophy, morals,

religion, and politics, w/o inquiry...

" for what its worth " ......

regards,

J. Pedersen, DC