tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1681061535544361219.post3652796095854900439..comments2023-10-30T03:24:43.479-07:00Comments on Open City and its Natural Enemies: Defining American Liberalism and Nationhood: A Parallelism with Auster of VFR in Critique of Openness-ValorizationJohn S. Boltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05502491478912356848noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1681061535544361219.post-16555174656479982272007-07-25T17:53:00.000-07:002007-07-25T17:53:00.000-07:00Without assuming an overall plan that could integr...Without assuming an overall plan that could integrate inconsistent policies, there is a clear tendency for political leaders to try for as much power as can be gotten away with at a given time and place. Auster's analysis would seem to apply to theory more than to practical politics; to academic elites rather than those of money and power. This consideration might resolve some of the divergence of conclusions.<BR/>There is an impulse towards valuing openness and towards hating exclusion, which is irreducible and liberal in a long-term way, which takes pressing personal, family or small group reasons to suppress. Beyond this is the impulse to command openness on others, on others regarded as outsiders in some degree, which is even harder to countermand, and especially so on the academic and theoretical level.John S. Boltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05502491478912356848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1681061535544361219.post-91806221136603709902007-07-23T01:24:00.000-07:002007-07-23T01:24:00.000-07:00Part of the problem here may be that liberalism is...Part of the problem here may be that liberalism is really the moderate left, while Auster is reaching for a crystalline echt liberalism, which could shatter if someone controverted<BR/>a basic indispensable doctrine.<BR/>Voltaire said "the Moslem trades with the Jew" as if this were proof that there can be no lasting enmities within the brotherhood of all humanity; the Wars of Religion shall not return, and we can make discrimination and exclusionism into vices or non-virtues in absolute terms, and all of this rationally. <BR/>The moderate left is more diverse than this though, and the real differentiae tend to sort by power-desires more than principles such as one would be prepared to lose an election in adherence to, for example.<BR/>I'll have more to say on your points later.John S. Boltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05502491478912356848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1681061535544361219.post-91904740955143067752007-07-22T14:27:00.000-07:002007-07-22T14:27:00.000-07:00John, I think you’re very much correct here about ...John, I think you’re very much correct here about liberals’ motives. Lawrence Auster is still somewhat confused about this, if you saw <A HREF="http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/008370.html" REL="nofollow">the recent discussion</A>. Unlike you, he doesn't really understand the purposes of ideology that well. He overstates the sincerity of liberal belief, so that he thinks if liberals were shown to be wrong on the Islam question, they would have nowhere to go. I imagine they’d just redefine liberalism as they have already done several times. A hundred years ago, liberalism preached the superiority of the West, and yet they’ve completely turned around without being conscious that there was any continuity lost.<BR/><BR/>Auster ignored a great deal of what <A HREF="http://bravenewworldwatch.blogspot.com/2007/07/can-liberalism-survive-restrictions-on.html" REL="nofollow">I wrote in my response to him</A> because he didn’t see the relevance of it to his question.<BR/><BR/>Nice blog! I invite you to <A HREF="http://bravenewworldwatch.blogspot.com" REL="nofollow">come over and visit me sometime</A>.John Savagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09204911551117542124noreply@blogger.com