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Liberty is not merely the absence of coercion but a learned skill and a habit of self-governance that requires active participation and responsibility. This is the central idea of Alexis de Tocqueville’s psychology of freedom.
Freedom, Tocqueville warned, can be quietly eroded in democracies not by force, but through the voluntary surrender of personal responsibility to the state, leading to a “subtle surrender of freedom” where people, seeking security, relinquish their autonomy.
This psychological shift, driven by a desire to avoid the burdens of choice and the anxiety of uncertainty, results in a passive citizenry dependent on government, ultimately undermining the very foundations of a free society.
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Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 – 1859) was a French diplomat, political philosopher and historian, best known for his works ‘Democracy in America’ and ‘The Old Regime and the Revolution’. According to Mani Basharzad, what Tocqueville teaches us was echoed in Sir Roger Scruton, the torchbearer of conservative thought in England in the last century.
Using Tocqueville’s philosophy, Basharzad explains how freedom is lost through the lack of taking personal responsibility.
The Psychology of Freedom
The following is an extract from the article ‘Psychology, Security, and the Subtle Surrender of Freedom’ written by Mani Basharzad and published by The Daily Exonomy. You can read the full article HERE.
Tocqueville’s special contribution lies in showing us the psychology of freedom. For him, liberty was not only a matter of institutions and individual rights, but also of the deeper attitudes that hold everything together and make freedom work. On this basis, we arrive at one of the most disturbing parts of Tocqueville’s thought: freedom can be lost in democracies through democratic means. It is not only overthrown by revolutions, coups or violent movements; it can disappear in a calm, civil and apparently legitimate way.
The shift of consciousness Tocqueville described is this: people may love freedom, but they do not always love the responsibility that freedom demands. They look for someone else to bear the responsibility that comes with freedom. And what better candidate than government? Do not trouble yourself about the uncertain future; we will decide for you. Do not worry about the consequences of your choices; we will absorb them. We will shield you from danger.All we require is a little more power, a little more of your decision-making capacity. In this world, governments do not seize liberty; people surrender it voluntarily – a ‘Brave New World’ where people love their servitude, a painless concentration camp in which, as Huxley wrote, people “in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it.”
This undermines one of liberty’s strongest safeguards: community. As government replaces community, people lose the habit of solving local problems themselves and they begin to surrender their agency, expecting the state to act in their place. Eventually, they reach the condition in which, as Tocqueville wrote, “they can do almost nothing by themselves.” If citizens forget the art of cooperating with one another, of pursuing common goals and solving their own problems, Tocqueville warned that “civilisation itself would be in peril.” Citizens grow weaker, more dependent and less capable. This is not the result of brute force, but of their own choice to substitute state power for individual autonomy, community and responsibility. They give up their freedom and allow others to choose for them, lulled by the illusion that life will be easier.
At its core, the loss of freedom is psychological. It is rooted in the failure to act, the failure to exercise personal autonomy, the failure to participate in community and the constant deferral of responsibility in the hope that someone else will solve our problems. The result, Tocqueville feared, would be “an insupportable tyranny even without wishing to.” A tyranny no one wanted, yet to which everyone contributed, step by step. Freedom is lost in the same manner Hemingway’s banker went bankrupt: gradually, then suddenly.
[Further reading: Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville | Notes & Summary, Johnathan Bi, 26 May 2020]
Featured image taken from ‘Thousands Protesting in London – It’s All for Nothing without Freedom!’, Armstrong Economics, 27 June 2021
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Categories: Breaking News, World News
Good article Rhoda, and I hope it will wake some up to the evil designs of the NHS – founded in the same year as the modern state of Israel! It’s founder Aneurin Bevan was a Marxist Socialist!
A corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Matthew 7:17.
Is this not what we see today?
Didn’t this wicked organization take “personal responsibility” away from the masses, and total reliance on Big Government ‘health’ care? The clarion call of “we’ll look after you from the cradle to the grave” went out to the nation – hastening the grave. They’ll even vaccinate babies against viruses that don’t exist, and much else…
Hi Rhoda,
Another interesting article.
The Children in Nepal have had the same idea of Freedom.
72 dead and rising, hundreds in hospital.
Mainly because they objected to having 26 media sites shut down.
Nepal, a major supplier to the UN peacekeeping gang, just mowed down all those children.
The remainder, responded, by burning down the Parliament building.
I have a feeling this could happen in the UK.
Police stations are being shut. Union Jacks and England flags are being flown from lamp posts where I live .
Courtesy enables growing-up into adult: learning to out-think emotions to control self. Without self-control there is no freedom of thought, speech or action.
Children no longer taught to reliably control their bladders by 2 years old. Dry-nights products for 12 year-olds believe themselves 100% perfect, so inhumane.
Children over-indulged and under-disciplined remain infants incapable of carrying responsibility; bad-temper tantrums, terrified of everything, self-isolate, fob-off.
Easy-care fabrics, convenience shops, low-maintenance gardens, no letters signed, roads dangerous, never own thoughtless driving, demand ‘nanny’ improves roads.
Excellent comment. Though I do have a low-maintenance garden… but I made it that way myself and still have to maintain it. 🙂
I agree, not many people love being in charge… more comfortable to look for “entertainment” ; the French philosopher Pascal stated that Human Beings looked for entertainment to divert their mind from death.
But I do not blame the vast number of people who are maintained in a state of dependency, of slavery… by greedy governments, employers, which is the case in most western countries captured by the Globalist Mafia… Their primary needs must be fulfilled (Maslow) before being clear-headed enough and be able to fight for Freedom !
Superficial ideas. The guilty person must always blame the victim.
Gogg want meat, but Grogg not want responsibility of hunting. Roog went hunting and got meat. Grogg is bigger than Roog. Grogg will take Roog’s meat.
“governments do not seize liberty; people surrender it voluntarily” Obvious garbage. Roog can “take resposibility”, fight with Grogg and die, or take the lazy, easy, irresponsible way – provide Grogg with meat and live. This is government. It is simply organized crime. Nothing more, nothing less. Governments have a police force and an army, and if you do not go along with the program you will be shot.
There is no democratic government. If everyone agreed it would be democratic. But everyone does not agree, that is why we have police and armies.
Also, the author is conflating two ideas. When man invented the shovel he was better able to raise food. Instead of cultivating with a stick he is now dependent on the shovel thus surrendering some of his sovereignty to the shovel. Eventually we harness electricity, surrendering even more soveriegnty thus becoming lazier and lazier. Associations, guilds, corporations, professions, etc. are tools designed precisely to free us from much day to day decision making so we can focus on creativity. That is what tools are for. They cannot be conflated with the brutal force of government.
So forget about the idea of ““subtle surrender of freedom”.
The moral issue is: How are you taking the freedom of others by force? The easy way out is to blame the victim.
I can certainly see your point but, so far, I am not getting shot for making independent choices for myself and my family. If enough of us would be willing to just make those independent choices we may be able to, at a minimum, shrink the size and scope of “government”. Big government exists, IMHO, because the people have demanded it. If I get a pothole in the alley behind my house, I don’t call the government to come and fix it, I go out and fill it myself. Same goes for numerous other things where I don’t use the excuse, “I pay taxes so I should get (fill in the blank).” I don’t want the government doing things for me, except for the bare minimum necessary to do what we in America originally asked it to do: Protect individual liberty. That is the proper role of government. Government does a horrible job with pretty much everything it touches, so why in the world would I want them to do ever more for me? The average person is completely aware that the government cannot solve problems for them but, instead of picking up that shovel you mentioned, they either call the government agency in charge of shoveling, or, even worse, they let a problem they can solve themselves continue to fester and just complain that the government never does anything for them.
Yes, it becomes more than dependence, it becomes idolatry.
As long as we continue to wait for government to solve things that are totally within our power to solve ourselves, we will never be free. If we think we can vote for our health, our personal safety, our food choices, our schooling choices for ourselves or our children, our decision whether to accept injections and medical experiments, etc. to be solved by government… we deserve what we get.