From an interview with Michael Crichton:

What is the most serious threat facing our civilisation?

Loss of classical liberal values in those western societies that embraced them.

England was the first modern state, the first superpower, the first nation to deal with moral issues around the world, and the first nation to install the benefits of what we might now loosely term a liberal society. I mean that in the 19th century sense of liberalism. That notion of liberalism was also present in America, but made it to the Continent only in a pale and limited form. It is a wonderful social conception that must be vigilantly guarded. It is not shared by other nations in the world. Nor is it shared by many citizens in English-speaking countries. Peculiarly, many of our most educated citizens are least sympathetic to classical liberal ideals. Indeed the term ‘liberalism’ in the modern day has come to imply a constellation of attitudes that John Stuart Mill would not recognize as liberal at all. Nor would, say, John F. Kennedy recognize them as liberal. Kennedy’s conception of liberalism was simultaneously more tolerant and more tough-minded: tolerant about varieties of behavior within the society, and tough-minded toward threats to a tolerant society from without.

That’s all gone, now. Today there is far too much sensitivity within societies, and too little hard-nosed recognition of threats from without. We are inclined to be intolerant of speech by our friends and neighbors, and tolerant of beheadings, rape, and homophobia in distant lands.

This makes no sense. But here we are.

Speaking of “liberal” (little “l”), if anyone reading this has not yet viewed Evan Sayet’s lecture at the Heritage Foundation, drop everything now, and watch it.

Seriously, this is one of the clearest explanations of the “leftist mindset” I have ever seen. I have watched it four times now and it just keeps getting more and more profound.

Said Discerning Texan @ 10:21 pm | Permalink   

1. Thanks for the video. Someone had asked me if I was aware of what he said but I could not find the vid.

   Comment by Mike's America — 4/1/2007 @ 10:32 pm

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