Liberalism is the defining political philosophy of our age, it surrounds us and affects every area of our life. Not only is it the defining philosophy of our age but of our parents’ age and of their parents. In the English speaking world it has been dominant since the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Nearly every political party is a party of Liberalism; the Liberal party, the Labor party, the National party, the Greens. They all support Liberalism, they are merely variants upon the same theme.
So what is Liberalism?
Liberalism believes that freedom and liberty are what man want. That he wants to be free to make his own decisions, to create his life as he sees fit. That he should not be restrained by the decisions of others. That he should be self made. That not only he, but his money, his labour and his goods should also be free from restraint. They should be able to be free to move without restrictions from place to place, from country to country.
However Liberalism is also a progressive philosophy, it never sits still, it is constantly changing, adding and subtracting parts from itself. This means that there are different types of Liberalism; Classical Liberalism, Right-Liberalism, Left-Liberalism, Libertarianism and Feminism are the important ones.
Like all of the political ideologies, Communism, Fascism, etc., Liberalism came out of Christian thinking. Specifically from Protestant thinking. In Catholicism between man and God is the priest. Man does not have a personal relationship with God. In Protestantism there are no priests, man has a personal relationship to God. Man prays directly to God and if he wants God speaks back. What happens to a man’s faith when God does not speak back…ever?
Some men reach the conclusion that either God doesn’t care or even that God does not exist. Atheism is as old as religion, but Secularism isn’t, it’s as old as Protestantism. And secularism is the idea that God gets in the way and that he needs to be removed, or at least curtailed. That man must rely upon his own mind and spirit because God cannot be relied upon. Slowly, very slowly, man replaces God. Slowly, very slowly man becomes God.
As man can no longer rely on God, man must also replace heaven after death with a man made paradise. One that man can exist in while alive. A utopia.
A utopia is a man made paradise where perfect people live under a perfect government within a perfect economic system. And at the heart of the Liberal version of utopia is the Autonomous Individual.
The Autonomous Individual is the end goal of Liberalism. Such a person is entirely self made, they can choose every facet of their lives. Their gender, their occupation, their religion, their experiences, where they live, everything. Such a person cannot be held back by attachments or loyalties. Those things are restraints and when a person is free, autonomous, that cannot be allowed. Life cannot have consequences. Life must be lived without restraint.
The Autonomous Individual may have children but they will not raise them as that would be a restraint, an obligation, a consequence. The Autonomous Individual cannot marry or love as that is an attachment. Lust is allowed, but not love.
The irony is that as more and more Autonomous Individuals are created the size of the government goes up. All other attachments are being removed, the churches, communities, ethnic loyalties, families. They are all being attacked and discredited. Only the government will be left. It will be all powerful, it will be the Autonomous Individuals’ parent and employer, their spouse and their friend. Because all other relationships will be as superficial as they can be made to be.
For those who think that this is too far fetched, that this could never come to pass, that no one would ever believe such outrageous things. I say you need to pay more attention to what’s happening around you right now.
No fault divorce was not something people campaigned for, there were no marches or demonstrations demanding it. But we got it anyway. Just think, that 50 years ago most people in Australia had never met someone who had been divorced. It didn’t just happen, it was made to happen.
Men and women have always argued, but at the same time they still fell in love, married and had children. Why is that breaking down now?
It’s not accidental, it’s not incidental, it’s not happenstance. It is entirely how it was planned to happen. One of Liberalism’s great strengths is its patience. It can wait generations, and has.
While conspiracy forms a part of Liberalism it is a mistake to think of it as a conspiracy. It is much better to think of Liberalism as a Logic. Each step is the next logical step, because the end goal, the Autonomous Individual, is understood. Each person knows the correct direction to go in, so while mistakes are made and misdirections take place, that is of no consequence as it can be corrected because the end goal is always known.
Which leads to the question, do Liberals, and remember that nearly every political party is Liberal, understand what they are supporting?
In some cases it’s easy to know, but in most I am left to wonder, are they so stupid that they don’t know what their philosophy believes or are they so evil that they know and support it?
One of the reasons that the right has failed is that we have not focused on our greatest enemy. Until we understand it we cannot defeat it. Until we identify it we have no hope of victory and a world in which Liberalism has won is a nightmare!
Originally published at Upon Hope.