i love Bruno Maçães’s articulation of the issue of liberal universalism.
Liberals wanted their political values to be accepted universally, much like a scientific theory enjoys universal validity. In order to achieve this, a monumental effort of abstraction and simplification was needed, similar to Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein abstracting from previous physical theories a more formal system of relations. Western civilization stopped being a civilization, or at least it stopped seeing itself as a civilization. It would not embody a rich tapestry of traditions, ways of looking and seeing, and it renounced the classical aspiration to pursue a philosophical or religious vision. Its principles were meant to be broad and formal, no more than an abstract framework of relations.
human life takes place on a limited timescale, during which we are fated to place our bets on certain specific understandings of the world
from: the return of civilizations (noema mag)
basically: the libs think we don’t need tradition. we think we can live life totally rationally. but this viewpoint is based in a shallow understanding of the human condition (one which may be rectified by engagement with tradition). and it’s shallowness is revealing itself to us now, in health (mental and physical) epidemics, and continued international conflict. to throw away all the work of our ancestors towards this difficult task of living a good life is silly. life is too short for this. just because we do not understand their symbols does not mean they’re useless (Chesterton’s Fence).
also see:
Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them - A.N. Whitehead
i have one caveat to Maçães point. we may be able to do away with civilizational states. but we all need to be mystics. or loving intuitives. we all need to be seeing so clearly, so attuned to intuitive truth, that we don’t need the support of tradition. the right thing to do is simply obvious, and so you do not need to enforce a culture beyond the basics of liberal universalism. many people today are moving in this direction, re-deriving subjective truths from the rubble of tradition.
that is my far far fetched utopia: mystical liberalism
