1. Tocqueville Tour 2.0
Johnathan Bi: Alexis, why would you like to retrace the journey of your ancestor, Alexis de Tocqueville, and go back and visit America?
Alexis d’Hérouville: To answer your question, please let me directly quote Tocqueville when he wrote in his 1835 book, the very famous Democracy in America, which is by some people known as the best book ever written on democracy and on America. He said in 1835,
“The nations of our day cannot prevent conditions from being equal within their midst, but it depends on them whether equality leads them to servitude or to freedom, to enlightenment or to barbarism, to prosperity or to misery.”
This is the mother idea of Tocqueville, and I am absolutely convinced, persuaded that today it is more than ever accurate because all the trends we met and encountered in the American society recently raise the same question.