[Las] (Epub) Why Liberalism Failed
By Patrick J. Deneen
Has liberalism failed because it has succeeded? Of the three dominant
ideologies of the twentieth century?fascism, communism, and liberalism?only
the last remains. This has created a peculiar situation in which liberalism?s
proponents tend to forget that it is an ideology and not the natural end-state of
human political evolution. As Patrick Deneen argues in this provocative book,
liberalism is built on a foundation of contradictions: it trumpets equal rights
while fostering incomparable material inequality; its legitimacy rests on
consent, yet it discourages civic commitments in favor of privatism; and in its
pursuit of individual autonomy, it has given rise to the most far-reaching,
comprehensive state system in human history. Here, Deneen offers an
astringent warning that the centripetal forces now at work on our political
culture are not superficial flaws but inherent features of a system whose success
is generating its own failure.
