The Middling Effect

"It is curious to me that while so many, pens, minds...are discussing intellectual topics...Our fundamental want to-day in the United States...is of a class, and the clear idea of a class, of native authors, literatures, far different, far higher in grade than any yet known..." (Dem. Vistas 759)

Whitman is essentially asking is, 'in a political system where so many people are given equal opportunity to participate, why have not any minds, of the great multitude of participants, emerged as exemplary in describing their own system?' I think Tocqueville answers this question in describing a middling effect which is equally important to making democracy work. "A middling standard has been established in America for all human knowledge. All minds come near to it, some by raising and some by lowering their standards." (Dem. in America 56) If American intelligence hovers around this middle level based on differences in access to upper education, it is no wonder we have not lived up to the potential of democracy. We have not adequately been able to justify our system of government because our general comprehension of it is not widespread. Even if a great writer was able to accomplish Whitman's dream, it would be lost on those below the middle standard, thus effective literature can only exist on the middle level. I also think the nature of democracy pushes the bar higher for its own potential as this middle standard of intelligence rises. As the intelligence of a people grows, their potential grows, and thus the potential of the way they organize themselves grows. For this reason I do not think the potential of democracy can or will ever be reached, because that is it's beautiful nature. There is nowhere to go but up.