Blog 1

This week, one of the most fascinating sociological thinkers that we discussed (in my opinion) was Alexis de Tocqueville.  His ideas on different social topics, I feel, still hold true today.  It's intriguing when you find a thinker from as long ago as the 19th century, that can still be considered "relevant" in modern day America.  

One topic of his that I found thought provoking were his thoughts on social change.  When I initially read this, it was the topic that I got the least out of.  I did not quite understand what he was getting at, and I struggled with connecting his ideas.  After further delving into the topic in a group setting, I was able to connect the dots.  

When Tocqueville discusses social change, he gives his views of the French Revolution.  He does not think that this brought about as much change as many had hoped.  He did not think that there were enough advantages in result of the French Revolution- one of those being a change for social classes. Although peasants could now become landowners, they were..."prevented from bettering themselves mentally and materially... strikes us today as so inhuman...they were left in a state of ignorance and often destitution worse than that of the serfs, their forefathers" (Tocqueville).  This further illustrated his notion that increasing wealth leads to greater unrest.

I feel like we see this on our society today. We live in a culture where what you have is never enough. Our society does not praise character, but rather success. Just when you think you've reached a point of being satisfied, there is still the aching that maybe something else will fill that hunger inside us.  We feel that if we can only be making a little more money, buy that bigger house, get that new car...THEN we will finally find rest. But, we never do.

I feel that I connected to his ideas quite well.  His final idea, that increasing wealth can have an outcome of greater unrest, is quite accurate both in the 19th century as well as today.  Social class has always been an issue, and it does not matter how much wealth is accumulating, because that will not abolish social hierarchies.  Humans are self-serving by nature, therefore accumulating more wealth will not be accompanied by equally distributed wealth. There will always be the discontented feeling that we want what someone else has.  In my opinion, that will never be something we can achieve. Even Tocqueville recognized this early on. 

This is a quote that I have to remind myself of often.  Tocqueville was right when he thought that having more of something does not always lead to contentment.  Sometimes it's good to remind ourselves that we don't have to have what our neighbor has- sometimes what we have is enough.