Tocqueville on Democracy
Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS
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Tockfield's Paradoxical Side of American Life
Tockfield told a story that he thought captured this, this paradoxical side of American life. The worst thing that happened to him on his nine month journey around America was he took a steamboat and it started to sink. He asked the manufacturers why their boats were so shoddily built,. Why didn't they actually make them better? Tockfield said we live in a country where things are changing so fast and everything's getting better so quickly It's not worth our while improving our steamboats because a better one will be along soon.
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