Admin: I’m still in the middle of my busy week—which seems to be extending itself. Trying to cope.
Commenter Helmsley Hawes made a book recommendation that I want to pass along. It’s a book that I haven’t actually read—The Liberal Mind, by Kenneth Minogue—but Minogue’s approach seems sound.
I’m aware from reading comments (I do read all comments) that many readers have spent a fair amount of time reading history of one sort or another. The great virtue of Minogue’s approach is that it’s historical and, in the sense of Alisdair MacIntyre, “genealogical”—he traces the development of Liberalism as an ideology or a tendency of thought that exhibits a consistent development over time. And when I say “time”, Minogue means since the 16th century. Readers will know that I regularly insist that it’s impossible to understand our Modern or Postmodern crisis without digging back historically to the breakdown of philosophy in the late Middle Ages—the century or so before the Protestant Revolt, which was fueled by the Nominalist and Voluntarist thinking that Augustinian thought had devolved into. These are the origins of the Liberal Mind in all its many forms: Classical Liberal (Libertarian), Progressivism, the fuzzy liberalism we readily recognize in our friends, family, and neighbors, the various forms of Socialism and Marxism, etc.
It’s important to understand that this continuing historical development is governed and guided by certain key ideas and attitudes. It’s common to hear people say, ‘Well, not all Progs or not all Libertarians or not all Liberals hold to the positions or way of thinking that you attribute to them. I know a Prog or a Libertarian who’s very pro-life,’ etc. That’s not the point.
People are not consistent, but ideas are. In the history of thought (as Etienne Gilson maintained) the logical implications of ideas always work their way out to the logical extreme. On a societal level, what this means is that while individuals may be inconsistent with regard to the governing principles of the Liberal Mind, as a society the influence of those ideas set us on the slippery downward slope. Once on the slope, only a conscious rejection of those guiding ideas—accompanied by a conversion to sound principles—can get us off that slope.
Helmsley Hawes wrote:
A brilliant little book that examines this question in is "The Liberal Mind" by Kenneth Minogue. Smart man smart book. Helped me understand that I was a conservative.
That’s what I hope this book could offer to readers: An understanding of what it actually means to be conservative, what the guiding principles of the Liberal Mindset are—where they come from, how they have developed, how the strands of thought of the Liberal Mindset all relate, how to recognize the product of the Liberal Mindset, how to recognize sound thought. Importantly, self education of this sort can help you come to an understanding of how you may personally be affected in your way of thinking and looking at life. As Gilson maintains, if you accept the guiding principle of a system of thought, no matter what your intent you will be driven, willy nilly, to either accept or compromise with its implications. This is where so many well intentioned people find themselves.
So …
Here’s a website featuring The Liberal Mind. The virtue of this site is that, while it offers the book for sale, it also links to several online versions and, through a hyperlinked TOC, allows you to sample the contents, chapter by chapter. Here I provide the description and the TOC:
Kenneth Minogue offers a brilliant and provocative exploration of liberalism in the Western world today: its roots and its influences, its present state, and its prospects in the new century. The Liberal Mind limns the taxonomy of a way of thinking that constitutes the very consciousness of most people in most Western countries. While few - especially in America - embrace the description of liberal, still, Minogue argues, most Americans and most Europeans behave as liberals. At least they are the heirs of what Minogue describes as “the triumph of an enlarged, flexible, and pragmatic version of liberalism.” By examining the larger implications of the concept of liberalism, Minogue offers fresh perspective on the political currents that continue to shape governments and policy in the Western world.
Table of Contents
Now, here’s a link to Amazon, with the description there, and a few brief reviews—the description starts out the same as above, but then differs significantly:
Kenneth Minogue offers a brilliant and provocative exploration of liberalism in the Western world today: its roots and its influences, its present state, and its prospects in the new century. The Liberal Mind limns the taxonomy of a way of thinking that constitutes the very consciousness of most people in most Western countries. But what, precisely, is liberalism? Or, more accurately, can liberalism be defined precisely? Minogue attempts to answer both questions. "The Liberal Mind attempts to uncover the philosophy of liberalism and lay bare its implications. What is Man? How does he think and feel? What is the place of Reason in human affairs? How should men live? What is politics, and what is it for? These are the questions which liberalism both asks and answers. The answers supply a technique of living, which is a utilitarian moral guide: yet the great advantage claimed for this code is that it is scientific. Because of this claim, liberalism is forced into a series of moral and political evasions, both doctrines and emotional habits of thought. These are dissected in The Liberal Mind."
And some sample reviews:
- The history and philosophy of the regressive left. Every detail of the reasons for the riots in the streets today explained as part of the historical development of the liberal mind. Very thorough and detailed examination of the beginnings of liberal thought in the 16th century to the modern manifestation in the 21st century. Although it was written in the early sixties, it could have been written 5 minutes ago the author was so prescient.
- What a cogent history and explanation of liberalism. I am in love with this book. The brilliance in Minogue's analysis is astounding. Where are the public intellectuals of this caliber today? Answer: awash in the postmodern world's knee-jerk liberalism and knee-jerk conservatism.
- Minogue dissects the politics and philosophy of the liberal mind. He presents a compelling historical review of the liberal path. The path of progressive policies ends in confusion, acrimony, economic collapse and anarchy. History speaks clearly.
I would recommend also Minogue's The Servile Mind (2011). I've not read The Liberal Mind, but found The Servile Mind an incredibly accurate characterization of today's warped liberalism. Here's the Amazon description:
One of the grim comedies of the twentieth century was the fate of miserable victims of communist regimes who climbed walls, swam rivers, dodged bullets, and found other desperate ways to achieve liberty in the West at the same time as intellectuals in the West sentimentally proclaimed that these very regimes were the wave of the future. A similar tragicomedy is being played out in our century: as the victims of despotism and backwardness from third world nations pour into Western states, the same ivory tower intellectuals assert that Western life is a nightmare of inequality and oppression. In The Servile Mind: How Democracy Erodes the Moral Life, Kenneth Minogue explores the intelligentsia's love affair with social perfection and reveals how that idealistic dream is destroying exactly what has made the inventive Western world irresistible to the peoples of foreign lands. The Servile Mind looks at how Western morality has evolved into mere ''politico-moral posturing about admired ethical causes-from solving world poverty and creating peace to curing climate change. Today, merely making the correct noises and parading one's essential decency by having the correct opinions has became a substitute for individual moral actions. Instead, Minogue posits, we ask that our government carry the burden of solving our social-and especially moral-problems for us. The sad and frightening irony is that as we allow the state to determine our moral order and inner convictions, the more we need to be told how to behave and what to think."
Honk if that resonates with you.