Right-liberalism and left-liberalism

I find my definitions of right-liberalism and left-liberalism in a recent entry to be less than satisfactory. Here is another attempt:

Right-liberalism is the belief in a single universal truth, the truth that all men have equal rights, and in America as the providential embodiment of this truth. While there are different cultures, all cultures are conformable with the single universal truth, even Islam, and thus all people, including Muslims, can be assimilated into America. For right-liberals, the supreme sin is to deny the single universal truth and its corollary that all men are capable of following that truth.

Left-liberalism is the belief in the substantive and moral equality of the human race. It rejects the notion of a single universal truth, because such a truth would be superior to other truths, and because the men who believed in that ostensibly universal truth would feel superior to and would attempt to dominate other men. All truths, all men, all cultures, must be treated equally, just as they are. For left-liberals, the worst sin is to imagine that you are in possession of the truth and that you have the right to expect other people to conform to it.

Thus right-liberals think that left-liberals are committing the worst sin, and left-liberals think that right-liberals are committing the worst sin. Divided by such hatreds, the two respective sides cannot conceive that both sides are in fact liberal. What makes them liberal? The belief in equality (however defined) as the ruling principle.

- end of initial entry -

LA writes:

A friend who knows my thinking very well says that this blog entry and others like it are pointless. I respond here.

Brandon F. writes:

Isn’t the belief in the substantive and moral equality of the human race and the rejection of the notion of a single universal truth a belief in a universal truth?

This is obviously the problem with relativism which of course is the philosophical kernel of liberalism.

LA replies:

Of course. Which brings us back to the fact that left-liberalism is an anti-existence ideology which can sustain itself in existence only by making massive unprincipled exceptions to its own principles.

Thus, notwithstanding left-liberals’ formal rejection of power, dominance, and inequality, of course they believe in power, the power of left-liberalism to control society, to eliminate traditional beliefs and loyalties, and to suppress and silence dissidents, which they do through the use of the double standard. As Jim Kalb demonstrated in his 2000 essay “The Tyranny of Liberalism,” it is the nature of the liberal regime to deny the existence of its power even as it exercises it.

But that is not the end of the story. The left-liberal regime, however skillfully it is sustained by unprincipled exceptions, concealed power, and double standards, is not sustainable forever. Its basic principle of non-existence, seen most dramatically in its embrace of unrestricted abortion and unrestricted immigration, spells the existential death of the liberal society sooner or later.

VFR’s Swedish conservative reader writes:

Brilliant, Lawrence! Brilliant indeed.

I would add:

1) Virtually all Westerners are liberals. So these are also the definitions of right-wing and left-wing. The only exceptions being a very few marginalized “far right extremists.”

2) This also makes it clear why it is always the right-wing who makes the great quantum leaps to open further the flood gates of mass immigration. Most people make the knee-jerk error of blaming this on the left-wing. But in every case where I looked into the specific concrete history of a Western country, it’s been the right-wing that made the important decisions to create open borders and mass immigration. The reason the right-wing does it they are true believers in open borders and mass immigration, by believing in the single universal truth. The left-wing, however, do not truly believe in this. The only thing they believe in is their self- image. However, this self-image forces them to dance along, as part of the theater, always to position themselves just to the left of the right-wing, whenever the right-wing takes another quantum leap to implement more mass immigration, or whatever else their faith in the single universal truth make them force upon people.

Whenever the right-wingers sober up with an unprincipled exceptional hangover, they blame all their drunkard sailor actions on the left-wingers. The left-winger, after all, has always conveniently placed himself there, just to the left of the right-winger, and is always ready and proud to take the blame.

LA replies:

The quote of the year:

“Whenever the right-wingers sober up with an unprincipled exceptional hangover, they blame all their drunkard sailor actions on the left-wingers.”

However, you must give us examples of how it is always right-wing parties that initiate immigration increases.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 10, 2007 02:17 PM | Send