Why Americans Are Restless Questions 2 & 5

2.) A society that is set devoted to equality is practically unachievable. There will always be someone that is faster than you or smarter than you. Equality cannot be achieved if their is someone that is better than the others. Alexis de Tocqueville states, "No matter how a people strive for it, all conditions of life can never be perfectly equal. Even if, by misfortune, such and absolute dead level were attained, there would still be inequalities of intelligence which, coming directly from God, will never escape the laws of man." (pg. 167) This just states how even if people were not around you, someone is smarter than you, and that will never go away because intelligence is a gift by God and cannot be removed. So the people that try and get total equality end up failing and get hurt in the end because they put all of their time and money into but in the end nothing will come out for the long run.

5.) Tocqueville wrote "It is odd to watch with what feverish ardor the Americans pursue prosperity and how they are ever tormented by the shadowy suspicion that they may not have chosen the shortest route to get it."(pg. 164 -165) This quote demonstrates how Americans often try to find short cuts and that we are restless because we can't always find the shortcut sometimes. We spend so long to find the shortcut in life that we waste most of our time looking, when we could be doing the job by ourselves and having that feeling of accomplishment. In the time that you were looking for the shortcut you could have just done the job already. Tocqueville's whole essay is about how Americans have the opportunity to do anything with their lives. As long as they work hard and don't give up. We often try as hard as possible to get to that ideal spot in the world. However sometimes people beat you their and all the work you just did is all gone and you have to try over and over again to succeed. This to Tocqueville is the main reason Americans are often restless.