The Australian Way of Life
Politicians reach for “our way of life” to justify immigration restrictions—but the phrase may be too vague to bear that weight.
A collection of 35 posts
Politicians reach for “our way of life” to justify immigration restrictions—but the phrase may be too vague to bear that weight.
Americans who may have ferocious disagreements about the size of government, foreign policy, and a wide range of other issues must find a way to unite around their shared commitment to the liberal idea.
The core principles of liberalism—freedom and equality—are insufficient for the good life. We need to supplement them with a more robust, metaphysically thicker understanding of human nature and the good.
"That was the moment I realised I had underestimated the ideological rot inside academia."
Only when we understand the fragility of liberal democracy will we be properly motivated to defend it.
Many liberals are strangely eager to concede that liberal societies are morally and spiritually bankrupt without religion to give life meaning.
Western civilisation has not succeeded because its liberal and secular principles are Christian; it has succeeded because Western Christians have accepted its liberal and secular values.
We have lost the words that we could once call upon to justify diversity of thoughts, desires, viewpoints, and policy preferences, as opposed to a diversity of demographic groups.
Education was divided along confessional lines into Catholic and Protestant school systems; for these purposes, Jews were designated Protestant.
Hungarian politics is usually much less ideological than you think.
This kind of regime-analysis disappeared with the rise of classical liberalism, which supplied an altogether different language of politics.
It would be a mistake to conflate “adaptive” with “good.” But similarly, it is a mistake to conflate “good” with “sustainable.”
This imbalance between rights and responsibilities is not only restricted to individuals, it is also affecting our governmental, societal, and cultural institutions.
Our pre-liberal past was far worse than our imperfect present, and attempts to build a utopian post-liberal future have invariably ended in regression to barbarism.
The parties that have previously sold themselves as staunch defenders of freedom are now the parties most susceptible to authoritarianism.