- 12 Feb 2023 20:27
#15264706
“Is Liberalism Worth Saving?” was the topic of a forum published in the February 2023 issue of Harper’s Magazine.
Participants included editor Christopher Beha, moderator; Patrick J. Deneen, author of Why Liberalism Failed, Francis Fukuyama, of Stanford University; Dierdre Nansen McCloskey, of the University of Illinois at Chicago; and Cornel West, author of Race Matters.
Some highlights:
Fukuyama said that while a liberal would be considered a leftist in the U.S. but a rightist in Europe, he had a different perspective. “To me, liberalism revolves around the presumption of basic quality and dignity that applies to all of us as members of our species, and the idea that this dignity is ultimately based on our moral autonomy, our ability to make moral choices.”
West: “The dark side of liberalism is its blindness to the threats of oppressive economic power, its blindness to militarism and imperialism abroad. But it's important that we never view liberalism in monolithic, homogeneous terms.”
Deneen noted that liberalism has been challenged by leftist populism, which threatens property rights, and rightist populism, which demands adherence to tradition. But despite that, “I’m on the side of the demos, in both its left and right forms.”
Fukuyama: “You can certainly have illiberal democracies. That’s what Victor Orban is trying to construct in Hungary . . . And you can also have liberal autocracies. The classic case was late nineteenth-century Germany, which had a very strong rule of law, a lot of individual freedom, but no democratic accountability.”
Deneen: “Liberalism has very little to do with preventing centralized power . . . Kings of old would be jealous of the military, economic, and executive power that’s wielded by what we call liberal regimes.”
McCloskey doesn’t think the market economy has a corrosive effect on liberalism. “We’ve exchanged commodities since the beginning of humanity, and markets have co-existed with ethical development.”
West: “You can’t just say, my dear sister Deirdre, that markets are just about buying and selling. No. They manipulate, they dominate. You’ve got advertising industries in place to convince people to consume.” He added later, “We’re dealing with commodification on steroids.”
Beha asked if America should be exporting liberalism. McCloskey wanted that. “I think the whole world would be better off.” Fukuyama: “I agree with Dierdre that if everybody respected human rights and thought like liberals, we’d probably have a better world. But that’s not the world we live in, and we don’t have the power to create it.”
Your thoughts?
Participants included editor Christopher Beha, moderator; Patrick J. Deneen, author of Why Liberalism Failed, Francis Fukuyama, of Stanford University; Dierdre Nansen McCloskey, of the University of Illinois at Chicago; and Cornel West, author of Race Matters.
Some highlights:
Fukuyama said that while a liberal would be considered a leftist in the U.S. but a rightist in Europe, he had a different perspective. “To me, liberalism revolves around the presumption of basic quality and dignity that applies to all of us as members of our species, and the idea that this dignity is ultimately based on our moral autonomy, our ability to make moral choices.”
West: “The dark side of liberalism is its blindness to the threats of oppressive economic power, its blindness to militarism and imperialism abroad. But it's important that we never view liberalism in monolithic, homogeneous terms.”
Deneen noted that liberalism has been challenged by leftist populism, which threatens property rights, and rightist populism, which demands adherence to tradition. But despite that, “I’m on the side of the demos, in both its left and right forms.”
Fukuyama: “You can certainly have illiberal democracies. That’s what Victor Orban is trying to construct in Hungary . . . And you can also have liberal autocracies. The classic case was late nineteenth-century Germany, which had a very strong rule of law, a lot of individual freedom, but no democratic accountability.”
Deneen: “Liberalism has very little to do with preventing centralized power . . . Kings of old would be jealous of the military, economic, and executive power that’s wielded by what we call liberal regimes.”
McCloskey doesn’t think the market economy has a corrosive effect on liberalism. “We’ve exchanged commodities since the beginning of humanity, and markets have co-existed with ethical development.”
West: “You can’t just say, my dear sister Deirdre, that markets are just about buying and selling. No. They manipulate, they dominate. You’ve got advertising industries in place to convince people to consume.” He added later, “We’re dealing with commodification on steroids.”
Beha asked if America should be exporting liberalism. McCloskey wanted that. “I think the whole world would be better off.” Fukuyama: “I agree with Dierdre that if everybody respected human rights and thought like liberals, we’d probably have a better world. But that’s not the world we live in, and we don’t have the power to create it.”
Your thoughts?
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