Redeeming the Social Sciences

leaves the immediate influence of one’s biological family, “the sway of custom and the tyranny of opinion,”19 still have influence in our social engagements as they may also be worked into the fabric of the larger communal order that has already established the “ordinary customs of civil bodies.” 20 Or to put in other terms, “the will of the majority is the most general of laws, and it establishes certain habits which form the characteristics of each peculiar class of society . . .” 21 In simplest terms, there is often, but not always an intricate link between private formation, public practices, liberty, morality, and the religious habitation informing public and private customs. 22

It is important to understand that custom as socially given convictions and behavior is not always of a weighty social or moral nature. At times it is simply a prescription for practical action. Whether it is the socially prescribed costumes employed while navigating a river boat down the Mississippi river, 23 Henry David Thoreau learning the craft of pencil making, 24 or an inaugural address delivered by

19 Ibid., 606, 684.

20 Ibid., 601.

21 Ibid., 592.

22 Ibid., 573.

23 Mark Twain, “Life on the Mississippi” in Gateway to the Great Books: Man and Society (Chicago: Britannica, 1990), Volume 5: 63, 68.

24 Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Thoreau” in Gateway to the Great Books: Man and Society (Chicago: Britannica, 1990), Volume 5: 150.

President Lincoln, 25 each of these manifestations of adherence to customs is more of a practical matter of fact than a moral admonishment.

Custom as the establishment of normative behavior or social mores commonly has laws, rules, ordinances, that run parallel to the wider social intimations. Laws, rules, and ordinances are more formal strictures with established formal and legal consequences for violation. One case in point would be how Americans, as described by Tocqueville, experienced their longing for self-governing authority within their everyday social habits. 26 According to Tocqueville, one particular characteristic that was common among the Americans, he observed, was patriotism. Distinct from today, he observed that this particular quality was rooted in “ancient customs” “ancestral traditions” and seemed to function as a kind of civil religion. 27 By extension, while there are no laws currently in America requiring patriotic expressions, there are varying degrees of social censure for disrespecting the pledge of allegiance to the American flag at civic events, and specific laws against public flag burning. Custom is a primary means of establishing a social or civic order that is conducive to humane interactions governing any and all social occurrences. 28 Additionally, scholar John Bury, reflecting on the writings of Herodotus, ob - serves the full nature and the full power of customs. Using the example of cannibalism of one people and the practice of cremating the dead of other people, it is observed how difficult it is to get people to see beyond their customs. By way of explanation, the customs of a people can become so ingrained within the ways of a people the customs take on an indisputable authority. 29 In truth, one could argue that we actually live in, with, and through our customs. In other words, we do not merely comply to social customs—it is much deeper and more meaningful than simple adherence. Customs come to be a part of who we are and how we live. Tocqueville uses the example of the idea and adherence to the sovereignty of the American people as being so “recognized by the customs and proclaimed by the laws” as to be beyond question. 30 Tocqueville later argues that it is actually the “customs and manners’’ of the people to freely associate with one another that acts as a guard against the “tyranny of the majority.” 31 This tyranny of the majority is a particular pernicious presence in America, according to Tocqueville.

25 Abraham Lincoln, “First Inaugural Address” in Gateway to the Great Books: Man and Society (Chicago: Britannica, 1990), Volume 5: 747.

26 Tocqueville, Democracy in America , 577.

27 Ibid., 641.

28 François Guizot, “History of Civilization in Europe” in Gateway to the Great Books: Man and Society (Chicago: Britannica, 1990), Volume 5: 313.

Tocqueville also makes an observation about the nature, essence, and practice of custom in America that is of the greatest importance. Contrary to the assumptions of some regarding the apparently fixed nature of customs, the reality is that custom is unstable or “fleeting.” 32 It is this observation that leads to the inevitable and obvious conclusion that social orders can and do change when “its habits are changed, its manners corrupted.”33 With any social setting, or communal order, there will always be the contrarian who asserts that customs stand as imposition of expected behavior that should be challenged. Possibly the best example of this in American history would be Henry David Thoreau. It seems that it would not be a gross exaggeration that Thoreau sought to challenge and question nearly every custom he encountered. 34 Socially, it is not normative for there to be large numbers of the membership of a social order that would consistently question the day to day customs of the masses. As a matter of truth, one could go so far as to say, in agreement with Tocqueville regarding social changes in his homeland of France, that, “our recollections, opinions, and habits present powerful obstacles” to social change. 35 However, in contrast, Americans, Tocqueville asserted of those living in America at the time of his study that “they brought neither customs nor traditions” to this land. 36 If this is true, it may go toward understanding why Americans seem to have few customs that have stood the test of time.

29 John Bury, “Herodotus” in Gateway to the Great Books: Man and Society (Chicago: Britannica, 1990), Volume 5: 373.

30 Tocqueville, Democracy in America , 584.

31 Ibid., 598.

32 Ibid., 678.

33 Ibid., 659.

34 Emerson, Thoreau , 151.

35 Tocqueville, Democracy in America , 580.

36 Ibid., 643.