Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c164IR // #c164Synthesis

The gradual development of the equality of conditions is therefore a providential fact, and it possesses all the characteristics of a divine decree: it is universal, it is durable, it constantly eludes all human interference, and all events as well as all men contribute to its progress.

— In our words · Source: Democracy in America (Alexis de Tocqueville)

[Use when]

When democratic trends are treated as reversible policy choices.

[Why it matters]

The book’s generative claim: equality of conditions is a divine-decree-level force no generation can check.

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