Tocqueville said: “He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice. He gains no practice either in discerning or in desiring what is best. The mental and moral, like the muscular powers, are improved only by being used. The faculties are called into no exercise by doing a thing merely because others do it, no more than by believing a thing only because others believe it.” This seems to be Tocqueville advocating the intentional and focused pursuit of personal wisdom. What is the divine perspective on this statement?

We agree with your analysis here, that this is putting a very keen and discerning focus on individuality being the premiere attribute of value, both to the individual and to the society in which they live. To ask for sameness belies the reality of the talent pool represented by a group of divine humans. The demonstrations again and again of human ingenuity to improve the culture are a testament to the flexibility, adaptability, and ingenuity of the human mind. People need to be let loose, not constrained to live a predefined life where everything is dictated and decided on by a group of elite so-called experts so that only one way exists for things to happen. So this, too, is a prescription for not only sameness but mediocrity and an overall lack of progress that eventually will lead to an actual regression with a degraded quality of life, and a kind of downward spiral with less and less getting accomplished and more and more sacrifices needing to be made, as when there are too many mouths to feed and not enough resources to keep things going—that is the end result always in stifling individual initiative through a lack of personal sovereignty. What you want to see is a blossoming of new possibilities with many individuals using their talents as a source of inspiration for others, breaking the mold, coming forth with new thinking about how to do things, to try out new ideas and model them for others, to take the lead, in effect, and break away from tradition and from the pack, striking out on a new path of discovery and bringing others along with them. That will not happen when there are constraints through a tyranny of the majority in the case of government holding the power and not the individual. When people sign on to the idea of sameness and do not think for themselves, and go along with the flow, they will be as lambs to the slaughter, even if it is only the death of the spirit by living a joyless existence.