“Eat the wealthy.” The ferocity of the words used by some demonstrators in London on the eve of the Group of 20 summit evokes the worst excesses of the French revolution. Anti-capitalist anger in the west is not confined to Europe. Alexis de Tocqueville's The Ancien Régime and the Revolutionis as relevant to understanding today's America as his deep and eye-opening thoughts on the young American republic in his Democracy in America.
「喫掉富人!」20國集團(G20)峯會前夜,倫敦的一些示威者使用的這句話的殘忍程度,讓人想起了法國大革命時期最殘酷的暴行。西方的反資本主義的憤怒並不侷限於歐洲。亞歷克西斯•德•托克維爾(Alexis de Tocqueville)的《舊制度與大革命》(The Ancien Régime and the Revolutionis)對於理解當今美國的意義,與他在《論美國的民主》(Democracy in America)一書中關於年輕的美利堅共和國深刻且令人大開眼界的思想一樣重要。