Category Archives: Liberalism

A Manifesto for Classical Liberals…

Posted on November 14, 2018 by bsixsmith

What do you think of when you hear the word “liberal”? Hippies? Commies? Vegans? SJWs? Clintons? Well, you could not be more wrong. The word “liberal”, you see, has been misappropriated by people who believe in big government and identity … Continue reading →

Posted in Liberalism, Libertarianism | 5 Comments

A.C.’s Failings…

Posted on February 11, 2017 by bsixsmith

I am really enjoying the radicalisation of the once-complacent, smug and optimistic humanist elite. Seriously, AC Grayling’s thunderous tirades against “Brexit” are admirably spirited and engaging. True, they are still full of absurdities. Take this: Too many people were disenfranchised: … Continue reading →

Posted in Britain, Liberalism | 8 Comments

Projecting Liberalism Backwards…

Posted on January 5, 2017 by bsixsmith

An article in the Economist, objecting to the Alt-Right’s appropriation of medieval history, implies that European societies were multicultural… Academics are placing a new emphasis on the ways in which medieval societies differed from the homogeneous world imagined by the … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Ideology, Liberalism, Uncategorized | 19 Comments

The Extreme Centre…

Posted on December 7, 2016 by bsixsmith

What does it mean to be “moderate” or a “centrist”? As far as I can tell it means to support supranational institutions, globalisation, mass immigration, social liberalism and some sort of Wilsonian interventionism. This is “moderate” only because it has … Continue reading →

Posted in Ideology, Liberalism | Leave a comment

Neo-Liberalism Through Conservative Eyes…

Posted on October 11, 2016 by bsixsmith

Madsen Pirie of the Adam Smith Institute has written an elegant, illuminating article on seeing the world through “neo-liberal eyes”. The ASI has embarked on an ambitious attempt to reclaim “neo-liberalism” to denote an optimistic individualism that upholds the virtues … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatism, Ideology, Liberalism, Libertarianism | Leave a comment

The Sentimentality of David Brooks…

Posted on August 11, 2016 by bsixsmith

The English poet and critic T.E. Hulme once wrote, of religion, that he did not “put up with the dogma for the sake of the sentiment” but preferred to “swallow the sentiment for the sake of the dogma”. This was a … Continue reading →

Posted in Behaviour, Conservatism, Liberalism | Leave a comment

The Public School in the Progressive Imagination…

Posted on July 15, 2016 by bsixsmith

Imperial Britain was, in a sense, a bully. It strode around the world as a bully strides around a school: pushing about the weaker, less developed nations. It could be brutal, and contemptuous, and it was not above stealing lunch … Continue reading →

Posted in Britain, History, Liberalism | Leave a comment

Antisocial Liberalism…

Posted on February 10, 2016 by bsixsmith

Antisocial liberalism combines a belief in liberty as the ultimate end of politics with ignorance of the immaterial functions of collective life. While libertarians might think that an absence of government can exist alongside group identity and ritual, antisocial liberals … Continue reading →

Posted in Ideology, Liberalism, Libertarianism | 2 Comments

Against Liberal Triumphalism…

Posted on January 10, 2016 by bsixsmith

“Civilisation,” claims Nick Cohen, “Came from the battering that religion took from the Enlightenment.” For liberal triumphalists like Mr Cohen, culture and science sprang into existence around the time that Voltaire first poked fun at faith. Before this, Britain was … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Liberalism, Politics, Uncategorized | 1 Comment