"In our democracy, many good qualities are certain to be found; but it would be vain to seek there for that old virtue styled sincerity. It is doubtless comprised of many excellent ingredients; but also of envy, deception, ambition and slander, which serve our so-called democratic politicians or demagogues as a rich treat . . . . Where this state of things restricted to politics alone, it might pass, but . . . democracy with its cunning deceit penetrates our entire existence and becomes a poison . . ."
Charles Sealsfeld, Life in the New World, or, Sketches of American Society (1844)
Every American lives in a state of radical insecurity. I mean that his job, his social standing, his reputation, his companions, and nowadays even his marriage and family, may vanish at very little more than a moment's notice. And thus every American is enslaved to the good opinion of other Americans who are themselves radically insecure, and who are therefore the very opposite of averse to expediently stabbing him in the back.
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