263. Standstill (IV)

Liberalism functions as an abusive parent, for at liberalism’s heart lies the double bind. The liberal tells us that under liberalism we are free to make choices as regards the values that guide our life, except insofar as these might cause physical harm to others or encourage anti-liberal sentiments. Superficially, this seems generous and a great improvement on monarchy, aristocracy, or proletarian dictatorship.

It seems this way until a person starts to live out their values fully; if you are, for example, a Catholic, it turns out that to be a Catholic means that the society in which you live should also be Catholic—and your Catholicism is only fully expressed if this is so. A few Christians insist that Christianity can coexist with any regime, since Christ says to render unto Caesar—yet, in reality, Christians acted to take over the state and overthrow paganism. If they did not, they risked being extirpated themselves; few Christians would opt to recuse themselves entirely from politics and allow their churches to be closed down by the state. The same is even more true for the Muslims, for whom to make Islam the state religion is an explicit imperative within the religion itself.

The liberal laughs with slick condescension. “You silly old bigots,” he says, “of course you may think anything you like, so long as your beliefs are private. We have privatised religion, and isn’t that progress?” Yet to “privatise” a religion is to disprivilege it; and this is how we arrive at the ridiculous spectacle where Joe Biden swears—and the media affirms—that he is a good Catholic, even as he facilitates and expands abortion—a mortal sin for the Catholics. This division—this double life—is what Christianity is meant to prevent: Jesus came to attack hypocrisy—liberalism sanctions and encourages hypocrisy.

Any attempt to express anti-liberal values is met with the accusation that these values—historical norms—are “extremist”, “fundamentalist”, and “anti-liberal”. Further, liberalism does not merely disprivilege other values; it actively degrades them. This is because liberals hold the minority—particularly the weak or unpopular minority, a holdover from Christianity—to be sacred. Hence LGBT values are promoted everywhere at the expense of every other faith and viewpoint and receive special protection. If you object—even if you are homosexual yourself—you are anti-liberal and bigoted.

All this occurs because you cannot step outside religion: man is built to be religious. There is always, always a state faith. In the liberal state faith, you are told there is a division between church and state: what this means practically is that liberalism is the state church, and the state is separated from other churches. People easily recognise that Communism and National Socialism were secular religions, but because we operate from within liberalism—it is the water we swim in—many people claim that we have overcome this problem, even as the British police arrest preachers who proclaim biblical truth about homosexuality; essentially, an arrest for a politico-theological crime—disrespect for a sacred group.

Religions are always total, though not necessarily totalitarian; and the same goes for liberalism—in practice, liberalism works just like any other religion; in addition, liberalism has learned from Henry Ford: “Any colour you want, so long as it’s black.” Any value you want, so long as it’s liberal. This means that liberalism is de facto hostile to the existing society it comes to govern, for it must disprivilege what exists—the majority, white and Christian—to favour the minority: homosexual, immigrant, non-white, and so on. The abusive aspect comes about because it proclaims universal love and tolerance as it ruthlessly suppresses dissent. The abusive parent growls at her child, “I love you,” with a voice that conveys disdain and disgust. The liberal turns to the Christians, the whites, the straight men, and Muslims and says, with a patronising and knowing voice: “You’re free. You can think and say whatever you want, so long as it’s not extreme and bigoted…”