VIEW FROM ACROSS THE POND - Just a Minute Radio for Monday 06-15-

            And a very good Monday to you too!....

 

            Today’s JUST A MINUTE is a bit of a history lesson… or standing aside from our own shores we take a look from back about 1830 at America as seen through the eyes of a French Aristocrat.

 

            Alexis de Tocqueville visited America with his friend Gustav Beaumont in May of 1831 and spent about nine months viewing this nation – which was still in its formative years – and experimenting with its growing pains. I’ve not read even portions of his DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA which it took him nine years to write once he got back home.

 

            Generally you get the ‘cherry picked’ comments De Tocqueville recorded… but apparently there are plenty of critical ones too. He thought  Andrew Jackson was just a slight cut above people he saw in our prisons. And he was astonished to see people of all classes shaking hands. Although a close look at the history of America at that time would show it was not really a nation that had developed a classless equality.

 

            In any case the book he and Beaumont produced is recorded as one of the greatest assessments of one culture by another in the literature.

 

            It’s on my list to get and read as much as I can take as soon as I can… [but I have a long list ahead of it.]

 

            We’d probably all be better off if we took a good close look at ourselves, our families, our schools and churches. Pretty hard to get an unbiased opinion though, even in the best of circumstances. France and probably most of Europe thought our experiment in democracy was doomed to failure… and because our ancestors didn’t fail but prospered – albeit not without difficulty and much discussion, not to say disagreement, perhaps Europe has never forgiven us for not fulfilling their prophecy.

 

            In any case I thought a good outside look would do us a bit of good. I hope you share my view.

 

            Cordially, IN HIM

 

 

            Jack

 

 http://www.jebcovoice.net/audio/jama06-15-09.mp3

 

http://www.jebcovoice.net/scripts/jamt06-15-09.doc

 

If the links don’t work please try copying to your browser.

 

 

“JUST A MINUTE”

VIEW FROM ACROSS THE POND

JUST A MINUTE – Alexis de Tocqueville arrived in Newport Rhode Island in May 1831 and spent nine months traveling from the East Coast to the Mississippi filling 14 notebooks with observations and interviews with 200 people. 

An aristocrat, de Tocqueville was amazed at the ideas of equality in America and astonished to see people of all classes shaking hands. Returning to France he spent nine years writing Democracy in America.

Europeans knew very little about America and many were convinced our Democracy would shortly slide into anarchy. He observed Americans naturally formed groups when they wanted to hold a celebration, found a church, build a school … or do almost anything else.  

"The people,” he said, “reign over the American political world as God rules over the universe," "… if they want to proclaim a truth or propagate some feeling ...they form an association. In France you would find the government ... in the United States you are sure to find an association." He observed a deep respect for the law in America – but generally gave political figures low marks.

<> I’m Jack Buttram  

Jebco Editorial Service

www.justaminuteradio.blogspot.com

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