democracy in action

So I'm writing a paper on the American value of the rugged individual and was skimming through Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America (which is uber-long) and found these section titles to be quite humorous.

- Why the Americans Have Never Been as Passionate as the French for General Ideas in Political Matters.
- How the Example of the Americans Does Not Prove That a Democratic People Can Have No Aptitude and Taste for the Sciences, Literature, and the Arts.
- Why the Americans at the Same Time Raise Such Little and Such Great Monuments.
- Why American Writers and Orators Are Often Bombastic.
- On the Gravity of the Americans and Why It Does Not Prevent Their Often Doing Ill-Considered Things.
- Why the National Vanity of the Americans Is More Restive and More Quarrelsome than That of the English.
- Why One Finds So Many Ambitious Men in the United States and So Few Great Ambitions.

Hahahaha. We've come so far in 200 years!

wendell berry - questionnaire

I have started reading Wendell Berry. This poem is from the book I randomly checked out from the library, entitled Leavings.

"Questionnaire"

1. How much poison are you willing
   to eat for the success of the free
   market and global trade? Please
   name your preferred poisons.



2. For the sake of goodness, how much
   evil are you willing to do?
   Fill in the following blanks
   with the names of your favorite
   evils and acts of hatred.



3. What sacrifices are you prepared
   to make for culture and civilization?
   Please list the monuments, shrines,
   and works of art you would
   most willingly destroy.



4. In the name of patriotism and
   the flag, how much of our beloved
   land are you willing to desecrated?
   List in the following spaces
   the mountains, rivers, towns, farms
   you could most readily do without.



5. State briefly the ideas, ideals or hopes,
   the energy sources, the kinds of security,
   for which you would kill a child.
   Name, please, the children whom
   you would be willing to kill.