For [...] the American Founding Fathers, [the liberal, moderate solution] was indeed a question of founding the new political order on the rights of the individual to pursue his own interest; however, they took it for granted that these principles had to be limited in their range by the moderating influence of the family, education, and religion. The bona vita is excluded from politics, but there remain rules that govern ways of life, rules that define what is honorable and dishonorable. Equal liberty plays out only within limits, limits inherited from Christian morality. But the Founders failed to see that they were setting a time bomb. To begin with the autonomous individual and his rights is to open up a dynamic process, that of the sovereignty of the individual, in which the rights of man break every bond with nature. It is to open the way to what was to come, to the results we see today. Whereas Christian thought said, Here are your duties, and may God help you, contemporary thought declares, Here are your rights, and to hell with you. - Philippe Beneton, Equality by Default
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 16:07:13 +0000
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