Liberalism Archives

Christopher Hitchens, the Conservative Marxist

How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment by Matt Johnson (2023). A review. There has been a gaping void in our political and…

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9 min

Liberalism and Our Sexual Rights and Freedoms

In an increasingly global knowledge economy, the middle and working classes of developed countries are feeling the pinch. This economic stress has inspired a resurgence of extremist political movements. Once…

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6 min

The Disappointments of Liberalism: Luke Savage’s “The Dead Center”

A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.—Robert Frost Liberals have long prided themselves on their pragmatism and moderation. While radical movements on…

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8 min

Something Worse than Liberal Hegemony

On the twentieth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the Economist published an essay entitled “How America wasted its unipolar moment.” It was a familiar story in a popular genre…

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22 min

The Enlightenment Paradigm: A Response to Yoram Hazony’s “Conservatism: A Rediscovery”

Introduction by Matt McManus He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able…

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7 min

Politics

Liberal Rights, Progressive Wrongs

In contemporary discourse, the concepts of liberalism and progressivism are routinely conflated, especially in American politics. But, as historically understood, they are distinct, and in many ways at odds with…

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13 min

Constitutions, Frontiers, Revelations and Truths: New Books by Jonathan Rauch, A. C. Grayling, Erik Hoel and Salman Rushdie

This article consists of reviews of four books that, while different in many ways, have certain things in common. Some of the connections are fairly direct—A. C. Grayling’s The Frontiers…

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10 min

Is Liberalism Genocidal, Racist and Elitist?: A Reply to Domenico Losurdo’s Counter-History

Liberalism can refer to many things: a philosophy, a disposition, an educational style—even a brand. But it is primarily thought of as a political doctrine originating in the seventeenth century,…

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8 min

Politics

The Unbroken Thread by Sohrab Ahmari

Sohrab Ahmari is a man searching for something bigger than himself to believe in. When he was very young, his family, leery of the Shia fundamentalism of their native Iran,…

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6 min

A Life of Cultural Appropriation: “The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi”

Fukuzawa Yukichi was born in 1835. When he was a young man, Japan was still a feudal society: static, rigid and almost completely isolated from the outside world, wanting nothing…

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8 min

Politics

Is Liberalism Worth Saving?

Often, a political ideology can be justified on the basis of its principles, despite its many failings in practice. This is how Francis Fukuyama and Patrick Deneen’s interpretations of liberalism…

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5 min

Politics

Civilisational Guilt and the Paradox of Tolerance

“Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance,” writes Karl Popper in his 1945 masterwork, The Open Society and its Enemies. Liberals’ blindness to the implications of this paradox…

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8 min

Politics

Liberalism and Legal Rights

Defining liberalism is tricky. For some, as Maurice Cranston puts it, “by definition a liberal is a man who believes in liberty.” But plenty of other political ideologies have stressed…

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6 min

Politics

Liberalism and the Threats It Faces

Liberal democracy is under threat. Over the last decade, a democratic recession has swept across the world, as once liberal democracies like Turkey, Poland, Hungary, India and the Philippines flirt…

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7 min

Politics

“The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?” by Michael J. Sandel

In his 1931 Epic of America, James Truslow Adams describes “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity…

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7 min

Politics

Institutions vs. Individuals: How We Judge Our Political Opponents

Most policy approaches can be divided into two broad categories: those that address institutions and root causes, and those that focus on individuals and effects. For instance, in the context…

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Liberalism

Christopher Hitchens, the Conservative Marxist

Liberalism and Our Sexual Rights and Freedoms

The Disappointments of Liberalism: Luke Savage’s “The Dead Center”

Something Worse than Liberal Hegemony

The Enlightenment Paradigm: A Response to Yoram Hazony’s “Conservatism: A Rediscovery”

Liberal Rights, Progressive Wrongs

Constitutions, Frontiers, Revelations and Truths: New Books by Jonathan Rauch, A. C. Grayling, Erik Hoel and Salman Rushdie

Is Liberalism Genocidal, Racist and Elitist?: A Reply to Domenico Losurdo’s Counter-History

The Unbroken Thread by Sohrab Ahmari

A Life of Cultural Appropriation: “The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi”

Is Liberalism Worth Saving?

Civilisational Guilt and the Paradox of Tolerance

Liberalism and Legal Rights

Liberalism and the Threats It Faces

“The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?” by Michael J. Sandel

Institutions vs. Individuals: How We Judge Our Political Opponents

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