Equality, Education, Elitists

Whilst reading de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, I was struck by how it was a political tome, but also a deeply philosophical one.  It fascinated me with the ideas of our perceptions of the lower class and aristocracy was really misguided, and the idea of the civilized society being unequal whilst the "savage life" (I love the casual political incorrectness...not that it would be termed as such in that time period...I'm just getting my snark quota in for the week) was "uncivilized" but "equal and free." 

"If, in polished countries, the lowest of the people are rude and uncivil, it is not merely because they are poor and ignorant, but that, being so, they are in daily contact with rich and enlightened men."

This quote,  really demonstrates humankind striving to better itself, but in a more specific sense it also discusses the idea of a precursor of the American Dream. The reason that Europeans left for America was in order to better themselves, to stop being the lower of the people and to move forward.  Without upward mobility, there's really no chance to do anything, in the broadest sense, but also a lack of upward mobility really contributes to a resentment of authority/the elite.  So, I see de Tocqueville as demonstrating the idea of a need for upward mobility to keep a society from going mad.  However, and this is the kicker, he also acknowledges the idea that  maybe the United States functions because its filled with the more intelligent people."These men posessed, in proportion to their number, a greater mass of intelligence than is to be found in any European nation of its own time."
It's a double edged sword.  On the one hand, I am all for the common man pulling ahead of his oppressors...but perhaps de Tocqueville isn't without reason (heh) in thinking that the more elite, the more educated are the ones to do it.