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Elizabeth L\u2019Arriv\u00e9e<\/h2>\n
Last night you spoke about Tocqueville and how his audience for\u00a0Democracy in America <\/em>was his fellow Frenchmen. At the very beginning of Democracy in America<\/em>, he remarks that in France, sentiments and ideas had become divorced: people\u2019s feelings and their thinking were completely disconnected. Then he comes to America and sees them somehow united.<\/p>\n If Tocqueville were visiting America today, what do you think he would say? Would he still see sentiments and ideas united here\u2014or have they broken apart in America?<\/p>\n Well, on the one hand, when you\u2019re abroad and a group of Americans is in a restaurant, you recognize them immediately. It\u2019s not just the language, it\u2019s not just the clothing. It\u2019s a kind of comportment.<\/p>\n I once wrote about this by imagining you\u2019re a graduate student in France. You\u2019re trying very hard to pass. You\u2019ve learned the language, you\u2019re trying to speak without an accent, you sit in caf\u00e9s reading the newspaper. And then a group of Americans comes in. They\u2019re very loud. They ask the waiter\u2019s first name. They introduce themselves by their first names. By the end, they want to trade emails.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re missing home, it\u2019s a relief. If you\u2019re trying to pass, you\u2019re ashamed. But in either case, you vibrate with what\u2019s going on with them. It\u2019s not some alien thing to you.<\/p>\n So in that way, I think if you look at basic, nonpartisan sentiments about democracy \u2014 equality, informality, everyone thinking they understand everything, politicians being mocked for pomposity \u2014 those sentiments are still shared.<\/p>\n The breakdown, I think, is not in political principles but in recognition: really different ways of life. Everything from how you comport yourself, how you take care of your body, the food you eat, whether you engage your children in conversation at the dinner table. It turns out that\u2019s crucial for intellectual achievement. Studies show children in talkative families are more articulate. In working-class families where \u201cparents know best\u201d and there isn\u2019t much conversation, children are less articulate and tend to withdraw when challenged by more fluent peers.<\/p>\n Even the sports we watch differ \u2014 the tennis set versus the wrestling set. When all those things get added up, I think there is a breakdown in shared sentiment that spills over into politics, rather than political sentiments themselves having disappeared.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the long answer.<\/p>\n Let me follow up. In your restaurant example, Americans would still be recognizably American. But have we reached the point where being of a certain class of American is more defining than Americanness itself?<\/p>\n I think so.<\/p>\n Certain things still distinguish us compared to other countries \u2014 we drive, we speak loudly in restaurants, all that. But if you isolate Americans and compare today to 30 or 40 years ago, there\u2019s a big difference.<\/p>\n When there were only three main television networks, everyone watched the same shows \u2014 cowboy shows, sitcoms. Whether you had a college degree or not, you probably ate meatloaf and canned peas. Food wasn\u2019t a big class marker. Eisenhower\u2019s dinner wasn\u2019t much different from a factory worker\u2019s.<\/p>\n That\u2019s no longer true. The Clinton example is instructive. Bill Clinton was a moderate Democrat, but the reaction against him was fierce. Part of it was cultural. Bill and Hillary seemed part of a new \u201cyuppie\u201d class. They spoke about feminism and sex in ways that felt alien.<\/p>\n The same thing with Obama \u2014 brewing beer in the White House, joking about arugula prices, shopping at Whole Foods. These were signals of a different class style. So in my lifetime, American life has fractured along those lines.<\/p>\nMark Lilla<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nElizabeth L\u2019Arriv\u00e9e<\/h2>\n
Mark Lilla<\/h2>\n
Elizabeth L\u2019Arriv\u00e9e<\/h2>\n
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