A text by the Polish political scientist Maciej Ruczaj commenting on the results of the Polish presidential election has been translated into Czech. As well as making remarks on the relationship between the different social classes in Poland (the accuracy of which I can only judge to a limited extent), he made this brilliant observation in passing: ‘Western European liberalism arose out of a fear of absolute power, while Polish liberalism is rooted in a fear of society itself.’
In reality, there is no difference between Western Europe and Poland; rather, there is a difference between 19^(th)-century liberalism and liberalism today. Ruczaj has answered a question that political philosophers have been asking for at least a generation, but to which they have found no answer: How can an ideology that has historically brought so much good and made the world a much better place manifest itself today in such an insanely tyrannical and destructive way?
Many scholars are looking for flaws inherent in old liberalism. There are hundreds of volumes on the subject, but the conclusions drawn are, at best, perplexing and, at worst, foolish and dangerous. However, when we read Ruczaj carefully, a completely different explanation emerges.
Liberalism is a militant ideology employed by the financial oligarchy to destroy anything that obstructs its path. However, when they fought against hereditary rulers, this could also benefit the people. This was particularly true of bad rulers who prevented the formation of political nations, the decent treatment of working people and all the other things we now collectively refer to as ‘modernity’.
However, since the 1980s, the financial oligarchy has been waging war against national governments that relied on the people by using the same ideology. We don’t benefit from it now.
It’s like a rifle. A rifle is great when you’re pointing it at someone, but not so great when someone is pointing it at you.
The rest of us will have to rethink issues such as freedom. How can we defend freedom without liberalism?