Publisher description
Saving Democracy from Its Enemies- from ItselfWestern democracy has become increasingly estranged from its crucial historical, political, spiritual, and cultural prerequisites- what author Daniel J. Mahoney calls "the conservative foundations of the liberal order." In this eloquent and insightful work of political philosophy and cultural criticism, Mahoney offers a vigorous defense of these foundations, and shows the dangers of identifying liberty with a radical project of social and cultural emancipation. The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order takes particular aim at partisans of "pure democracy, " who have transformed the principles of liberty and equality into an unreflective dogma. By reducing liberty to a vague affirmation of equality and individual autonomy, Mahoney shows, such partisans undermine those "contents of life" -, patriotism, philosophical reflection, family and social life- enrich human existence and give purpose to human freedom. What we need instead is a conservative-minded liberalism. Calling on the wisdom of Winston Churchill, Edmund Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Raymond Aron, and other exemplary leaders and thinkers, Mahoney addresses a wide range of questions related to liberty in the contemporary world. He brilliantly analyzes the task of the democratic statesman; the need for prudence, sobriety, and civic courage in confronting the totalitarian enemies of the West; the ties that bind religion and democratic liberty; democracy's tendency to squander its own inheritance in frenzied efforts to establish a human order that is more and more "democratic"; the follies of the postmodern "culture of repudiation"; the reasons so many intellectuals indulge totalitarianism and terrorism; and much more. Rejecting the dual temptations of utopianism and despair, Mahoney defends self-government- understood- both democracy's enemies and its all-too-numerous "immoderate friends." The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order upholds the rich civilized inheritance that allows human beings to lead free and decent lives together
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The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order
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