Transcript for Lecture on Tocqueville's Industrial Aristocracy

My lecture celebrating America's 250th anniversary

0. Introduction

America used to be the most equal nation in the world. There were no aristocrats who lorded themselves high above everyone else, and the social distance between classes was much smaller. When Tocqueville wrote this book, Democracy in America, in this very chateau in the 1830s, this is why people came to America. People came to America for her equality.

In 2016, I came to America for the exact opposite reason. I came for your inequality. For the dazzling heights you can achieve in America, and for the vertical distance to ascend upwards. And I am not alone. The best and the brightest no longer come to America for equality, but to achieve an unequal greatness.

Much has changed in the last 200 or so years. In fact, in the time of Tocqueville, his worry was that America was so equal that it would produce an impressive mediocrity, but that has completely changed. America is now the only Western nation hospitable to greatness, but at the great cost of not just her equality, but…