Why Americans Are So Restless Interpretive Questions

2. A society that is devoted to equality, such as that of Americans, weakens each individual to try to reach equality. Equality itself weakens individual in an effort to help other individuals who are "below" the previous individual. Tocqueville says, "The same equality which allows each man to entertain vast hopes makes each man by himself weak. His power is limited on every side, though his longings may wander where they will," (166). If one individual is incredibly strong, this force of equality that is so persistent in America will somehow weaken that individual. If one individual were to be above the others, equality can never be reached. Equality weakens individuals so it can provide a state of everybody being equal to each other in every aspect of life. When equality is involved, one can never be above the others and one can never be below the others. It is the individuals that are below the majority that cause the individual above the majority to be weakened. Some has to be taken away from a successful individual to give to the weaker, so to speak. The weakening of one individual is essential on the search for equality. Certain individuals have to be weakened in order to reach equality for all, according to Tocqueville. If one is a step above the others, America will take that step out from under that individual so that everybody is on the same level once again, where all are equal. According to Tocqueville, "When all prerogatives of birth and fortune are abolished, when all professions are open to all and a man's own energies may bring him to the top of any of them, an ambitious man may think it easy to launch on a great career and feel that he is called to no common destiny," (166). Equality is chased after so much because equality encourages all men to try to burst past the rest. Life becomes a "competition of all," (167), which provides a different barrier for people to fight against to get ahead. Because men have such a rich desire to reach their goals, they will fight strongly to beat all of their competition and reach their goal before the others. Equality, however, can never fully be reached because certain individuals are born with a certain level of intelligence that separates them from the group. However, Americans will still try desperately to reach this level of equality that is so unattainable because it will help those that are behind the others, and because Americans like the competition that equality can cause.

5. Tocqueville thinks Americans are so restless for a mix of both of these reasons. Americans know what they want for a while and they will pursue that thing but then they will find something else they want. They know what they want but what they want changes once they achieve the first thing they wanted. Americans "clutch everything but hold nothing fast, and so lose grip as they hurry after some new delight," says Tocqueville (165). They find something that they desire and then they hurriedly chase after it but by the time that have reached it they will have found something better and worthy of their attraction. So Americans do know what they wan it is just the problem of not sticking to one goal. Tocqueville says, "Men are often less afraid of death than of enduring effort toward one goal," (166). Americans can attain things more effectively than other groups of people because they live in the "circumstances the happiest to be found in the world," said Tocqueville (164). If something is unattainable to them, they will do whatever they can to make it attainable. So in a sense, that unattainability of certain things to Americans encourages them to be restless because it encourages their pursuit of that thing. Americans never see a goal that they can't reach, so they will brush past whatever level of unattainability that there might be to reach their goal, which is their ultimate purpose. Americans will continue to fight to reach their goal even if it is unattainable, they will not accept defeat and will continue to try to reach that goal. This is extremely evident in Americans' desire to reach equality. Equality is never really attainable, but still America is desperately trying to reach it. Americans have that desire to reach their goal whatever it may be because at the moment that is the most important thing to them, that is, until they find another thing that attracts their attention. Also, the strong presence of equality that lingers in our country helps all men to be able to attain what they want. It is not that Americans don't know what they want or that they can't reach what they want, it is that Americans changes their desires so frequently that makes them so restless. The definition of restless is "unable to rest or relax as a result of boredom or anxiety," and that is exactly what Americans are. Not because they don't know what they want or they can't reach what they want just because we have set the stage for Americans to constantly strive and desire for something more and something different than what they have.