Matthew's+Democracy+in+America+Reflection

Amidst the grim future that Alexis de Tocqueville's sees for an America ruled by Democracy, the band Buffalo Springfield sends a message promoting awareness: "I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down." Unfortunately, even "a thousand people in the street singing songs and carrying signs," will still be "getting so much resistance from behind." From the photo of a middle-class American home in the 50's, we see that American Democracy provides the majority of the population with "enough property to want order and not enough to excite envy" (//Democracy in America//, 636). By this logic, any change is understood as a threat to the status quo. America's willingness and capacity for change is sacrificed for a sluggish nation that cannot keep up with the spirit of the times (hence the photo of the slug). Americans also choose to change secondary issues that hold individual interest above the greater good: adding to de Tocqueville's judgement of Americans as narrow-minded and self-interested. The photo of three men marching shows that conservatism breeds a nation of Americans who choose to remain silent out of a fear for change. As we forfeit our freedom of speech, we grow increasingly similar in ideas and sentiments. To the tune of the last picture, our silence will lead to self-inflicted conformity and oppression.

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