THERE ARE NO JOYFUL STATISTS:

Now the liberals don the mantle of zealots: Christian belief has become something to hide in 'free' Britain. (KATIE GRANT, 11/22/04, The Scotsman)

Godless liberalism, the new opium of the masses, can be just as destructive as god-fearing religion, and - excuse the pun - has none of religion’s saving graces. Yet it escapes any censure. I would go further. Liberalism, in the way we currently mean it, ie not Gladstonian liberalism which was a political creed dedicated to limiting taxation, promoting trade and industry, reducing public expenditure and getting rid of restrictive laws, but social liberalism, ie all judgments are relative and nothing can be labelled right or wrong unless that is what liberals decree, while it has made society less rigid, on balance a good thing, has also brought about a whole host of disasters: family breakdown, sexual disease among the young, teenage pregnancy, the collapse of self-respect and dignity, yob culture and, above all, a new kind of sanctimonious intolerance among politicians for anybody expressing views, particularly religious views, that actually draw clear lines.

To be a social liberal used to denote a kind of cheerful free-and-easiness. That has vanished. Nowadays, social liberalism means cheerless totalitarianism. Ban, ban, ban, the liberals cry, as they noisily air personal dislikes and turn them into law, making pariahs out of smokers, hunters, those who shake the salt cellar too hard, and soon those who shoot and anybody else who doesn’t conform to the rigid liberal agenda as well. It seems that Britain avoided religious confessional politics only to allow liberal confessional politics in by the back door.

I suppose it is the word "liberal" that has blinded us. "Liberal" sounds so, well, liberal. It is a word redolent of freedom and breathing space; a good word. Its hijacking by MPs, MEPs and MSPs as a weapon of mass social destruction is depressing, although it has a certain amusing irony that it was the leader of the liberal group, Graham Watson, who was one of the most vociferous in declaring Mr Buttiglione unacceptable as justice commissioner, whereas "former" communists are greeted like long lost friends. European liberals, while taking enormous care not to be tainted by even a sniff of Islamophobia - a current taboo - are openly "Christophobic" - a useful word coined by French MEP Philippe de Villiers. The really worrying thing is that so many powerful people applaud.

To be honest, we didn't notice that there was a period when it wasn't cheerless and totalitarian.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 23, 2004 10:01 PM