ABSTRACT
Today, democracy remains the paradoxical phenomenon that fascinated Alexis de Tocqueville. Its perpetuity depends, as Tocqueville perceived, not only on the effectiveness of its institutions but, far more, on the vigor of moral forces that issue from religious beliefs and social conventions predating the rise of democratic institutions. Man has "improved". American democracy has led the West's greatest defense against "brutishness"—the brutishness of Nazi and Soviet despotism. In its own home, American democracy has striven to still the most raucous voices of unreason and brutality. Discipline and sacrifice of self are a matter of education. Since the time of Tocqueville, however, American civilization has become increasingly permissive. The authority of traditional figures—pastor, pedagogue, and paterfamilias—has been undermined, in no small part by the consumerism of our democratic society. With the undermining of authority, the strength of the nation also has been sapped, and where a nation's strength is diminished, necessarily the role of luck increases.
