Book Review.

I've never written a book review before.Maybe this isn't so much a review as it is just some thoughts on one of the books I've read recently and that appears in my reading list at the bottom of this blog.Expect to see that from time to time.

The book"Death Of The Liberal Class"by Chris Hedges is very self explanatory in terms of its title.Hedges notes that Classical Liberalism arose as a product of the Enlightenment and is characterized by the ideas of Egalitarianism,individualism,human rights and the idea that the human condition can be continually improved by the application of reason.He notes that Liberal society,through its institutions of organized labour,liberal churches,universities and the press has been largely successful in holding off the excesses of unrestrained Capitalism until the first world war.However,Liberalism since that time has been under constant and ever increasing attack as "permanent war"identifies threats from without about which we need to be on guard:Communism,terrorism,the list continues to expand.The result is more and more surrender of freedom to the state,which he characterizes as being commodity driven and uncaring towards persons and the environment.Ultimately,Hedges sees this as being unsustainable.Liberals have played a well orchestrated part in their own downfall by allowing themselves to become corrupted by the economic forces they were intended to do battle against  to the betterment of humankind.In Hedges view,the future is bleak because the Liberal cause is dead and cannot be revived.

While a world as described by Hedges is indeed a bleak place,I don't see an absence of hope because,while Hedges is informative and raises a number of issues which we all need to give a lot of thought to,he really does not make the case for the Liberal cause being dead.That's not to say that his observations are substantially false.His argument is a kind of political/social "salt and light"argument:if the Liberal Class is indistinguishable from the other forces around it,especially capitalism,globalization and tyranny,then it ceases to be a viable force and optimism for the continued improvement of mankind and we decend into a new dark age.As much as it's a well articulated opinion,all of that is a big if.

Hedges proves his point regarding the corruption of Liberal principles to a greater or lesser degree with respect to each of the Liberal institutions.But he has not recognized that each of these entities is affected by politics unique to it's own situation.So,while the press may be greatly corrupted by virtue of it's growth into big business,universities would appear to be less so( most graduates I know tend to be more liberal in their outlook with greater degrees of education).Hedges also seems to miss a central point with regard to Liberal religious institutions.That is that there are a number of movements within religion that are unique to religion that tend sway believers toward the right politically.Briefly those issues tend to be concerned with eschatology and manifest as support for Israel in the form of Christian Zionism or Dominion theology(the belief that we should pursue political policies which will hasten the establishment gods coming Kingdom).So,if the religious communities are occupied with coming kingdoms,can we really expect them to take up the Liberal crusades as in the past?

One other thing seems to receive only passing note in Hedges book.That being that morals in general have seen a notable decline that more or less corresponds with Hedges perceived decline of Liberal society.At the beginning of the Enlightenment people were morally engaged-all people,not just liberals.But we have seen the rise of moral systems of thought such as Utilitarianism,Humanism,Subjective morality,morality of pure convenience or even nihilism.Briefly,it would seem that people are not nearly so morally involved as they once were in being their brothers keepers and in safeguarding democracy for the benefit of all.Moral discourse has declined in quality because each of these moral systems are poor replacements for belief in God and the moral accountability that belief implied.

Capitalism,power and tyranny tend to be what morality comes to be defined as when there is poor moral discourse.Survival and enhancement of the already advantaged.So at the very time we need to defend liberal ideals the most we tend to have the least ammunition with which to do this.Liberals have tended to be seen as an "anything goes"movement by its detractors and so becomes  at risk of being seen as the enemy.But,far from being the authors of declining moral values,Liberal values still exist in classical form and are articulated by some of history's best political and philosophical minds.Those values are about freeing individuals to respond morally to the world without fear of reprisal from powers that be.And those values are far from dead,though they may need to be re articulated.Liberals need to  get back to first principles and to let the world know that they are doing just that.And despite the corruption of some,they are fully capable of doing so

So,while I encourage you to read "Death Of The Liberal Class" and to consider its premises at length and in detail,I must respectfully disagree with it's conclusions.