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Since Tocqueville wrote his book many forces have sought to separate individuals from their social commitments and identities. There is therefore now strange evolution that in a culture which interpret realization and success as individual pursuits for individual reasons, people tend to regard others as competitors rather than co-partners in a joint venture. Social and political change on any scale except the local and of any duration except the most immediate, is perhaps the truest form of such a joint venture. Nevertheless, I still believe that the people in U.S. can begin to make use of the power they still have – not when acting as individuals, but when acting collectively by aligning with others sharing the same social and political interests. The rule of the people granted through democracy necessitates and assumes collective action by people having the capacity to: 1. Realize that many individual needs and problems are shared by others 2. Join together for collective political strength and larger gains, instead of competing and fighting with each other for much smaller individual advancements. It is as great a balance and combination of the best in mankind as ever the political system set up by the Founding Fathers, to act individually as one component of a collective. But it is more true a reflection of reality than pure individualism. We are all both individual and social beings, and our actions and thought arise in the dialectic relationship between the self and others. Only when we can see the needs and conditions of the society and the others with which we constitute it as one with our own needs, can we act individually for the good of a greater whole. Although that “greater whole” was much smaller for the average American in the days of Tocqueville – most people in America did not know much or felt much connected to the world outside their town and perhaps their state – I still believe the evolution in technology and education can close the distances in space enough to recreate that delicate and wonderful balance that made America such a unique – and yes, collective – accomplishment. However, I also observe that people in U.S. will have a hard time closing the mental and emotional distance keeping people separated, and break through the walls of fear and competitiveness that keep them from acting on the needs of the society and the nation, rather than their own individual needs.
I am a Political and Behavioral Scientist with Psychology as my main subject and people as my main interest. As thoughts are the source of all human accomplishment I hope to be part of the exchange of them Also see: http://wildwickedwonderfulupfront.blogspot.com/
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