Liberal democracies, he has argued, faced with the dark menace of nationalism, need heroes if they are to rouse a positive national spirit and defeat the “sad passions” fanned by populists.
—The Economist on Emmanuel Macron in France’s victorious footballers do Emmanuel Macron a favour – France’s World Cup triumph
I quite liked this post by Rafael Behr. I quite strongly recommend reading it for the beauty of the words, even if you don’t agree with their intent.
On liberalism’s fighting power:
Fascism, its deadliest enemy, wasn’t debated into submission or outrun in an economic race: it was beaten by military force in a fight to the death, started by the fascists.
On winning the cold war:
Western intellectuals and eastern dissidents pleaded for democracy on principle for years before brute economics settled the matter.
On the state of the world today:
The Freedom party[^1] was then beyond the pale. The pale has moved.
And how quickly we got here:
It took a generation to get from the idealism of tearing down the wall to the backlash and pulling up the Brexit drawbridge.
Face facts. The west that won the cold war no longer exists | Rafael Behr
“… away from multiculturalism and towards assimilation”
Segregation scars parts of Britain, some immigrant groups remain poorly integrated and minorities within them are hostile to liberal values.
Britain’s genius is its ability to integrate newcomers, January 13, 2017 at 06:03PM
…the sole European leader willing to stand up to a newly assertive Russia.
Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ms. Merkel has been the most consequential voice for punishing Russia. The next year, she welcomed a million refugees into Germany, and pushed the rest of Europe to do the same — thus, in the view of Russian ethno-nationalists, diluting European culture. And she still believes in a united, integrated European Union, a bastion of liberal values and, at least implicitly, a political and economic bulwark against Russia.
Angela Merkel, Russia’s Next Target, January 11, 2017 at 03:31PM
As a set of beliefs that emerged at the start of the 19th century to oppose both the despotism of absolute monarchy and the terror of revolution, liberalism warns that uninterrupted power corrupts. Privilege becomes self-perpetuating. Consensus stifles creativity and initiative. In an ever-shifting world, dispute and argument are not just inevitable; they are welcome because they lead to renewal.
How to make sense of 2016, December 27, 2016 at 11:32PM
Use my marker 