Alexis II: Fresh and relevant: Alexis de Tocqueville and Simone Weil

I am on a roll. Two French intellectuals/philosophers analyzed the world around them almost 200 years ago (Tocqueville: Democracy in America, 1835 French and 1838 English) and 75 years ago (Weil: On the abolition of all political parties, 1950). They came to strikingly similar conclusions from very different perspectives. One example is how Tocqueville and Weil zeroed in on the ready-to-consume opinions offered to an intellectually lazy society. For Tocqueville, it is a danger to democracy; for Weil, it is a disease of political parties that, therefore, need to be abolished.

"In the United States the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own. Everybody there adopts great numbers of theories on philosophy, morals, and politics, without inquiry, upon public trust" (Tocqueville, 1835-38)

“Nearly everywhere – often even when dealing with purely technical problems – instead of thinking, one merely takes sides: for or against. Such a choice replaces the activity of the mind. This is an intellectual leprosy; it originated in the political world and then spread through the land, contaminating all forms of thinking." (Weil, 1950)

Tocqueville picture from link

Weill picture from link