Born from the contestation of political and religious absolutism, dedicated to the XIXe century, liberalism has become the hallmark of European modernity that has become “Western”, champion of individual freedom and pluralism as safeguards against tyranny. What remains of this civilizational scale?
For some, a now globalized economic doctrine which, under the guise of free trade and virtuous competition, accompanies unbridled capitalism and endorses predation. For others, the claim of unlimited and Promethean individual freedom against the sprawling figure of a State accused of all evils. For still others, the deceptive mask of a falsely universalist humanism guilty of atrocities and which now needs to be “unbolted”. And even, for some, the arrogant signature of an impious and declining civilization to be destroyed.
It is clear that liberalism, although widespread, is unloved today.
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Whether we deplore its reduction to an international mercantilism that fuels “growth” at all costs until it accommodates itself to the most serious ecological degradation or the most authoritarian regimes, or whether, on the contrary, we disavow what he still has ethical aspirations to prefer one of his competitors (libertarian defense of a desired “neutral” and resolutely minimal State, communitarianism, traditionalism, etc.), it is clear that liberalism, although widespread, is today unloved today.
A free spirit is not a fallow spirit
Is there reason to want his loss? Its structural place in the deployment of our democratic and developed societies, just like its historical ideals – freedom, responsibility, rationality, pluralism – plead rather for its rehabilitation. But a rehabilitation in the urbanistic sense: the repair from top to bottom of an unrecognizable building, even if it means going back to the foundations.
Because post-1980 “neoliberalism”, reduced to an economic and legal shell, is a degraded liberalism. Generalized beyond borders, radicalized in several respects, it is also simplified, truncated, substantially emptied. Enough to ? First of its political dimension, in the noble sense of the term (the deliberate taking charge of the polis), reduced to ethical mantras. But also of his mind, if not just the mind.
The structural place (of liberalism) in the deployment of our democratic and developed societies as well as its historical ideals […] rather plead for its rehabilitation.
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If it does not want to perish in the “icy waters of selfish calculation” (economic, financial or procedural), liberalism must regain its foundation: freedom or, better, the autonomy of the judgment of the individual-citizen . Well-ordered freedom begins with that of the mind.
However, a free spirit is not a fallow spirit, at the mercy of the first consumerist incitement or the first mystification that comes along. It is a mind which, mastering its language perfectly, is capable of apprehending and formulating complex statements as well as appreciating literature, poetry and humor (!) as well as learning languages for good. foreign; a spirit familiar with history and works of the past, spatial-temporal and cultural landmarks making him as sure of himself as he is open to criticism and otherness; a mind trained in logical operations by sufficient training in mathematics (which must be part of any “common core” of teaching) and in science, and by regular and constructive confrontation with contradiction; a practical mind, also, engaged in real and not virtual or sporadic participation in creative or civic activities, carrying meaning and lasting satisfaction; last but not least, a mind justly rewarded for its efforts or its talents, and not cradled in misleading ratings. One will recognize there, in two words, the program of liberal education.
Without equality in education, nothing holds
The first investment of societies (wanting to be) liberal must therefore be an educational policy that is as fair as it is ambitious. Without sufficient instruction and education, neither the economy, nor the law, nor the incantatory appeal to “rights” are emancipatory. Without equality in the face of this instruction and education, neither the “redistribution”, nor the “trickle down”, nor the promotion of “personal merit” is credible.
The first investment of societies (wanting to be) liberal must therefore be an educational policy that is as fair as it is ambitious.
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Any properly understood liberalism must be reconciled with “public affairs” and culture when it comes to ensuring the conditions of possibility for what it defends. Public services, starting with education – and more specifically a universal and efficient system capable of providing everyone with training that is demanding and nourishing for the mind (the neurosciences will say: the cortex) – are the key to the feeling of belonging to a common world, as well as dynamism and performance within it.
Otherwise, formal freedoms will remain, at best, a sweet illusion that no one will fight for; at worst, the food of resentment, even of anti-liberal hatred, and the terrain of their growing dissemination. Let there be no doubt about it: liberalism will be “enlightened” or it will not be.
Camille Dejardin, doctor of political science and professor of philosophy, author of “John Stuart Mill, utopian liberal”, NRF, Gallimard, February 2022
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