Sunday Philosophy

Back in the 1830s, Frenchman Alexis De Tocqueville traveled to America to review the country's prison system. But while here, he ended up studying virtually every aspect of our society, and created one of the most enduring portraits of American society as it established itself in the first decades after the Revolution. Here's one of the comments he made in his massive work, Democracy in America:

"The greatest danger to liberty lies in the omnipotence
of the majority. A democratic power is never likely to
perish for lack of strength or of resource, but it may
very well fall because of the misdirection of its strength
and the abuse of its resources. If ever liberty is lost in
America, it will be due to an oppression of minorities
which may drive them to an appeal of arms. The anarchy
which must then result will be due only to despotism."