왜 미국인들은 번영 속에서도 그렇게 불안을 느끼는가?

“왜 미국인들은 번영 속에서도 그렇게 불안을 느끼는가?” 

 

“미국인들은자유롭고 지금 이세상에서 가장 행복한 곳에 살고 있는 것처럼 보인다.  그럼에도 불구하고 슬픔이나 심각함을 가진 것으로 보인다. 그 이유는 그들이 아직도 소유하지 못한 어떤 이익을 기대하고 있기 때문이다. 행복에 대한 열정적인 추구가 불안감을 일으킨다.  즉 소유할 수 있는 것은 무조건 다 소유하려고 하기 때문에 죽기 전에 소유할 수 있는 것을 다 누리지 못할 것이라는 불안감이 생긴다.
변화는 일상적이고 새로운 것은 끊임없이 나오기 때문에 욕망은 끝이 없다. 그들은 마치 죽음이 자기 일이 아닌 것처럼 이 땅의 행복에 골몰하다가 잡자기 죽음을 맞게 된다. 행복에 취해 있는 사람이 불안해하는 것은 오래 전부터 있어왔던 일이지만, 온 국민이 다 그렇게 사는 것은 전례가 없었다.

 

미국인들이 물질적인 만족을 추구하는 만큼 그들의 삶이나 감정은 지속적이지 못하고 변덕스럽다.  그들은 늘 서두르고 바쁘다. 모든 행복을 다 누리려면 시간이 부족하기 때문이다.  이미 가진 것들을 모두 누리기에도 시간이 모자라나데, 아직 소유하지 못한 것들은 더욱 더많다. 그래서 불안과 변덕이 그들의 마음을 지배하게 된다. 물질적 쾌락을 추구하는 사람은 오랜 시간 하나의 목표를 위해 인내하지 못한다. 그것은 죽음보다 더 힘든 것처럼 보인다. 사회가 평등하게 되면 누구나 행복을 추구할 수 있는 길이 열리지만 그저 주어지는 것은 아니다. 그것은 똑같이 행복을 추구하는 동료 시민들과의 경쟁을 통해서 얻어진다. 인간의 상태는 모두가 만족할 만한 완전한 평등에 이르지 못한다. 왜냐하면 자연적이며 타고난 상태에서 불평등은 여전히 존재하기 땨문이다. 또 평등이 이루어질수록 작은 불평등조차도 분명하게 보이고 평등에 대한 욕구도 그만큼 강해진다.

 

 “출생과 운에 따른 모든 특권을 폐지했을 때, 모든 사람이 직업선택의 자유를 누릴 때, 야망이 큰 사람은 위대한 일을 쉽게 시작할 수 있다고 생각할 것이며, 자신이 비범한  운명을 타고났다고 느낄 것이다.  그러나 이것은 경험을 통해 금세 교정되고 마는 망상이다.  불평등이 사회의 일반법칙일 때는 아무리 불평등한 측면이라도 사람들 눈길을  끌지 못한다.  그러나 모든 것이 대체로 평등해지만 약간의 차이라도 눈에 띄고 만다. …

 

 

민주국가에서는 평등이 이루어지지만 모두가 만족할 정도로 이루어지지  못하고 , 행복을 소유하지만 다 누리기도 전에 죽음이 찾아온다.
그래서 풍요롭게 살아가는 민주사회의 구성원이 종종 묘한 우울증에 시달리고, 평온하고 느긋한 환경에서도 삶에 대한 혐오에 사로잡히는 것이다.  프랑스에는 자살하는 사람이 늘어나고 있는데,  미국에서는 자살하는 사람은 드문 대신 정신병자가 다른 어느 곳보다 흔하다고 한다.  향락에 대한 전반적인 추구가 정신을 불안하게 만들고  그 정도는 갈수록 더 심각해질 것이다.”

 

 

토크빌- 미국 여행중에 미국의 민주주의 라는 위대한 저작을 남긴 프랑스 판사 법학자

 

Chapter XIII
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WHY THE AMERICANS ARE SO RESTLESS IN THE MIDST OF THEIR PROSPERITY
In certain remote corners of the Old World you may still sometimes stumble upon a small district that seems to have been forgotten amid the general tumult, and to have remained stationary while everything around it was in motion. The inhabitants, for the most part, are extremely ignorant and poor; they take no part in the business of the country and are frequently oppressed by the government, yet their countenances are generally placid and their spirits light.
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In America I saw the freest and most enlightened men placed in the happiest circumstances that the world affords, it seemed to me as if a cloud habitually hung upon their brow, and I thought them serious and almost sad, even in their pleasures.
The chief reason for this contrast is that the former do not think of the ills they endure, while the latter are forever brooding over advantages they do not possess. It is strange to see with what feverish ardor the Americans pursue their own welfare, and to watch the vague dread that constantly torments them lest they should not have chosen the shortest path which may lead to it.
A native of the United States clings to this world's goods as if he were certain never to die; and he is so hasty in grasping at all within his reach that one would suppose he was constantly afraid of not living long enough to enjoy them. He clutches everything, he holds nothing fast, but soon loosens his grasp to pursue fresh gratifications.
In the United States a man builds a house in which to spend his old age, and he sells it before the roof is on; he plants a garden and lets it just as the trees are coming into bearing; he brings a field into tillage and leaves other men to gather the crops; he embraces a profession and gives it up; he settles in a place, which he soon afterwards leaves to carry his changeable longings elsewhere. If his private affairs leave him any leisure, he instantly plunges into the vortex of politics; and if at the end of a year of unremitting labor he finds he has a few days' vacation, his eager curiosity whirls him over the vast extent of the United States, and he will travel fifteen hundred miles in a few days to shake off his happiness. Death at length overtakes him, but it is before he is weary of his bootless chase of that complete felicity which forever escapes him.
At first sight there is something surprising in this strange unrest of so many happy men, restless in the midst of abundance. The spectacle itself, however, is as old as the world; the novelty is to see a whole people furnish an exemplification of it.
Their taste for physical gratifications must be regarded as the original source of that secret disquietude which the actions of the Americans betray and of that inconstancy of which they daily ford fresh examples. He who has set his heart exclusively upon the pursuit of worldly welfare is always in a hurry, for he has but a limited time at his disposal to reach, to grasp, and to enjoy it.
The recollection of the shortness of life is a constant spur to him. Besides the good things that he possesses, he every instant fancies a thousand others that death will prevent him from trying if he does not try them soon. This thought fills him with anxiety, fear, and regret and keeps his mind in ceaseless trepidation, which leads him perpetually to change his plans and his abode.
If in addition to the taste for physical well-being a social condition be added in which neither laws nor customs retain any person in his place, there is a great additional stimulant to this restlessness of temper. Men will then be seen continually to change their track for fear of missing the shortest cut to happiness.
It may readily be conceived that if men passionately bent upon physical gratifications desire eagerly, they are also easily discouraged; as their ultimate object is to enjoy, the means to reach that object must be prompt and easy or the trouble of acquiring the gratification would be greater than the gratification itself. Their prevailing frame of mind, then, is at once ardent and relaxed, violent and enervated. Death is often less dreaded by them than perseverance in continuous efforts to one end.
The equality of conditions leads by a still straighter road to several of the effects that I have here described. When all the privileges of birth and fortune are abolished, when all professions are accessible to all, and a man's own energies may place him at the top of any one of them, an easy and unbounded career seems open to his ambition and he will readily persuade himself that he is born to no common destinies. But this is an erroneous notion, which is corrected by daily experience. The same equality that allows every citizen to conceive these lofty hopes renders all the citizens less able to realize them; it circumscribes their powers on every side, while it gives freer scope to their desires. Not only are they themselves powerless, but they are met at every step by immense obstacles, which they did not at first perceive. They have swept away the privileges of some of their fellow creatures which stood in their way, but they have opened the door to universal competition; the barrier has changed its shape rather than its position. When men are nearly alike and all follow the same track, it is very difficult for any one individual to walk quickly and cleave a way through the dense throng that surrounds and presses on him. This constant strife between the inclination springing from the equality of condition and the means it supplies to satisfy them harasses and wearies the mind.
It is possible to conceive of men arrived at a degree of freedom that should completely content them; they would then enjoy their independence without anxiety and without impatience. But men will never establish any equality with which they can be contented. Whatever efforts a people may make, they will never succeed in reducing all the conditions of society to a perfect level; and even if they unhappily attained that absolute and complete equality of position, the inequality of minds would still remain, which, coming directly from the hand of God, will forever escape the laws of man. However democratic, then, the social state and the political constitution of a people may be, it is certain that every member of the community will always find out several points about him which overlook his own position; and we may foresee that his looks will be doggedly fixed in that direction. When inequality of conditions is the common law of society, the most marked inequalities do not strike the eye; when everything is nearly on the same level, the slightest are marked enough to hurt it. Hence the desire of equality always becomes more insatiable in proportion as equality is more complete.
Among democratic nations, men easily attain a certain equality of condition, but they can never attain as much as they desire. It perpetually retires from before them, yet without hiding itself from their sight, and in retiring draws them on. At every moment they think they are about to grasp it; it escapes at every moment from their hold. They are near enough to see its charms, but too far off to enjoy them; and before they have fully tasted its delights, they die.
To these causes must be attributed that strange melancholy which often haunts the inhabitants of democratic countries in the midst of their abundance, and that disgust at life which sometimes seizes upon them in the midst of calm and easy circumstances. Complaints are made in France that the number of suicides increases; in America suicide is rare, but insanity is said to be more common there than anywhere else. These are all different symptoms of the same disease. The Americans do not put an end to their lives, however disquieted they may be, because their religion forbids it; and among them materialism may be said hardly to exist, notwithstanding the general passion for physical gratification. The will resists, but reason frequently gives way.
In democratic times enjoyments are more intense than in the ages of aristocracy, and the number of those who partake in them is vastly larger: but, on the other hand, it must be admitted that man's hopes and desires are oftener blasted, the soul is more stricken and perturbed, and care itself more keen.