Another definition of the Unprincipled Exception

In my 2006 article, “The Unprincipled Exception Defined,” I wrote:

The unprincipled exception is a non-liberal value or assertion, not explicitly identified as non-liberal, that liberals use to escape the suicidal consequences of their own liberalism without questioning liberalism itself.

Alternatively, the unprincipled exception is a non-liberal value or assertion, not explicitly identified as non-liberal, that conservatives use to slow the advance of liberalism or to challenge some aspect of liberalism without challenging liberalism itself.

However, as I’ve also pointed out many times, notwithstanding the usefulness of unprincipled exceptions in mitigating the worst excesses of liberalism, liberalism in its steady progress—in the ever increasing consistency by which liberal principles are applied to previously non-liberalized areas of society—keeps defeating more and more unprincipled exceptions, thus carrying society closer and closer to the abyss.

These considerations lead to yet another definition of the Unprincipled Exception (as first stated here):

A non-liberal attitude that is not backed up by a non-liberal principle, and therefore is inevitably rolled over by a liberal principle.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 27, 2011 10:16 AM | Send