" If a despotic power settles in democratic countries, it would certainly have different characteristics from the past: it would be larger but more bearable, and degrade men without torment. A system that might seem paternal, but instead would try to set the men to their childhood, preferring to be having fun rather than thinking. I see a huge crowd of men like, running endlessly on themselves to obtain the minutes and vulgar pleasures of which nourish the soul. Each of them is in itself considered as a stranger to the fate of all other ... As for the rest of their fellow citizens, does not see them: touch them, but not feel them. And if the family still has some meaning for him, is the company not having any. "
Alexis de Tocqueville, La démocratie en Amerique , 1840.
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