Essential tenets of liberalism.

In Lee Harris’ book Civilization and Its Enemies: The Next Stage of History (Free Press, 2004) Mr Harris makes the point that we live “In a civilization with an intellectual culture that is reluctant to take the idea of an external enemy seriously . . . .^[1]

This caused me to reflect briefly on liberalism.

Liberalism, transnational progressivism, or multiculturalism. Whatever you call it — the doctrine that festers in the West and that stand in the way of rational action against the putrid Islamic challenge — has three preeminent characteristics:

1. There is no such thing as an enemy (per the above). The only enemy is someone whose viewpoint and goodness we have as yet failed to ascertain and appreciate.


2. The moral value of any political act is to be judged only by whether the actor's intention is to achieve a good result.^[2]


3. A society has an unlimited capacity to absorb good political actions without deleterious effect on liberty. Therefore, liberty, i.e., freedom from government interference or coercion, is an issue that can be ignored.

Notes
^[1] "Are we afraid to face our real enemies?" Eleanor Duckwall's Spotlight, 12/18/07.
^[2] "Good" as defined by liberals, of course. As one Cold War wag put it, "No promise of Socialism is ever remembered. No defect of Capitalism is ever forgotten."