Patrick J. Deneen, "Citizenship as a Vocation" in Democracy and Its Friendly Critics: Tocqueville and Political Life Today, ed. Peter Augustine Lawler.  (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004)

Excerpt:

I. The Restless American

Tocqueville was among the first commentators on the American scene to speak of the :restlessness,” or “restiveness” of democratic man.  Tormented by the openness of democratic society born of the universal “equality of conditions”–allowing the possibility of meteoric ascent and headlong decline–democratic man is denied a resting place, since to rest is to submit to drift, and to drift in a democratic age is tantamount to sinking.  In spite of the w”well-being” of democratic man, he is “inquiet“: literally, incapable of silence, therefore resistant to reflection and philosophy.  Democratic man seeks always to peer around the next corner, fearful something better lies beyond, and thus necessarily discontent with whatever decencies of the street on which he might live.  Motion and dynanism is his lot–both a promise, and a curse.

Tocqueville observed the  democratic man is also more likely to be a materialist–prone to accept material explanations for most phenomena, and also equally prone toward more crass forms of “materialism” because of this–and thus more fearful of death.  His materialism does not make him think less of death, but it promotes activity to avoid dwelling on his fear.  The fear of death, and the “restiveness” (and “restlessness”) it provoked, was everywhere present in his journey to America.

Online:
Amazon
Google Books (Preview)