N S Lyons, one of the most interesting writers on Substack (or anywhere), reviews Francis Fukuyama’s new book which sets out to salvage liberalism as a guiding philosophy.
Fukuyama as usual is well-attuned to the current mood in Washington DC, no less now than back when he wrote his prematurely triumphalist screed on ‘the end of history’. He senses that liberalism is in trouble, because the current demented autocracy may be, as Lyons writes, ‘the inevitable outcome of its own degenerative internal logic.’ If this is so, then an essential dogma of secular faith becomes unsustainable. Lyons points out that moral relativism, a non-judgmental attitude, and acceptance of diverse value systems are built into Fukuyama’s notion of liberalism. So then Lyons asks: How can anything get done without a sense of moral purpose? If all judgment of which ends are superior is abandoned, by what means are social policies and individual choices to be made? He concludes that according to the canons of liberalism, obvious markers such as skin color and all the other categories of identity politics will inevitably fill the gap in value judgment.
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Liberal Implosion?
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N S Lyons, one of the most interesting writers on Substack (or anywhere), reviews Francis Fukuyama’s new book which sets out to salvage liberalism as a guiding philosophy.
Fukuyama as usual is well-attuned to the current mood in Washington DC, no less now than back when he wrote his prematurely triumphalist screed on ‘the end of history’. He senses that liberalism is in trouble, because the current demented autocracy may be, as Lyons writes, ‘the inevitable outcome of its own degenerative internal logic.’ If this is so, then an essential dogma of secular faith becomes unsustainable. Lyons points out that moral relativism, a non-judgmental attitude, and acceptance of diverse value systems are built into Fukuyama’s notion of liberalism. So then Lyons asks: How can anything get done without a sense of moral purpose? If all judgment of which ends are superior is abandoned, by what means are social policies and individual choices to be made? He concludes that according to the canons of liberalism, obvious markers such as skin color and all the other categories of identity politics will inevitably fill the gap in value judgment.