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September 3, 2005
Can we talk about the death of liberalism in Australia?
Some conservatives do when they state that tolerance was brought about liberalism's terminal crisis of confidence. Then they talk about market liberalism in the next breath as they laud the virtues of the free market. So they don't mean liberalism per se; they mean either social and political liberalism.
Other conservatives argue that authentic liberal values have been corupted and all but destroyed by the left. The Left have purported to be liberal themselves, when in fact they have replaced the liberal values by illiberalism--a totalitarian mindset.
We can, however, talk about the rule of law being under seige by the national security state's politics of fear that manifests in a defensive reaction to the threatening terrorist object, person, or movement. Fear tacitly underpins on the "protective-obedience axiom" developed in the mainstream of political theories of Machiavelli, Hobbes and Schmitt.
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