Alexis de Tocqueville

S4E2 – Restraining the Tyranny of the Majority

Today I continue looking at Alexis de Tocqueville’s work Democracy in America, written in the 1830s. He saw Americans as having an inordinate love of the power of the majority. Yet even so, liberty remained strong in the land. How was that possible? What was restraining the power of the majority in the United States?…

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S4E1 – Roots of American Cancel Culture

To start off this season, I look at the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville, specifically his work Democracy in America written in the 1830s. Today I consider his chapter on omnipotence and tyranny of the majority. In democracy, we say that majority rules. But what restrains the majority from abusing their power? What about when the…

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S3E11 – Prophets of Totalitarianism

On this week’s episode, I continue our series on the topic of tyranny and totalitarianism by looking at several writers and philosophers who predicted the future of totalitarianism. Two hundred years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville described what despotism would look like in a democratic nation. About one hundred years ago, C. S. Lewis predicted the…

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