Pardon me while I preach to myself.
I’ve mentioned insights from Alexis de Tocqueville before. A French aristocratic lawyer, he studied the United States in the 1830s and wrote what is perhaps the best outside-the-fishbowl view of our democracy ever written.
Here’s the latest nugget, presented without comment except to add a silly but related meme. He mentions how astonishing it was to see how busy Americans were, flitting from business to vacation to politics, seeming too restless to stay in any of the activities for long, and finally, “Death comes at last catching him before he has tired of this futile pursuit of a complete felicity that remains forever out of reach.”
Tocqueville was shocked at so much “agitation” in the midst of all our material wealth. But he noted that it was a problem as old as the world–but “now comprises an entire people.”
The taste for material gratifications must be regarded as the primary source of that secret restlessness revealed by the actions of Americans and the inconstancy they exhibit every day.
The man who has given his heart entirely to the quest for the goods of this world is always in a hurry, for he has but a limited time to find, possess, and enjoy them. The memory of life’s brevity constantly spurs him on. Beyond the goods he possesses, he is forever imagining a thousand others that death will prevent him from savoring unless he makes haste. This thought fills him with anxieties, fears, and regrets and keeps his soul in a state of constant trepidation that impels him again and again to change plans and places.
… We will then find men constantly changing course for fear of missing the shortest road to happiness.
… Most souls are therefore both ardent and listless, violent and enervated. …
“Democracy in America”
Writing in the 1970s, Gordon Dahl has noted this is still true of Americans (and perhaps the entire industrialized world at this point):
Most middle class Americans tend to worship their work, to work at their play, and to play at their worship. As a result, their meanings and values are distorted. Their relationships disintegrate faster than they can keep them in repair and their lifestyles resemble a cast of characters in search of a plot.
“Work, Play, and Worship in a Leisure-Oriented Society”
As the kids say nowadays, “I feel attacked.”
There is dignity in labor. And labor does–or at least can–have a purpose. (There was even work in the Garden of Eden!)
You and I better make darn sure we have our priorities straight.
Enjoy your weekend.