In an effort to redescribe liberalism from a postmodern, but compassionate perspective, I propose the following analysis that extends over several pages. I recommend following the links to the next page at the end of each page.
My effort to redescribe liberalism aims at legitimizing liberalism as the only political theory that has the capacity to take the individual radically serious, while at the same time acknowledging that the individual 'stands in relation' to others and needs community. Beware of quick labels such as 'existentialist liberalism', 'communitarianism' or 'republican liberalism'.
First, let us consider what is at the heart of my analysis: narratives as the stable framework that provide people with a sense of identity.
Michael Sandel tells us about narratives and identity:
"Where civic virtue there consists in holding
together the complex identities of modern selves, it is vulnerable to corruption
of two kinds. The first is the tendency to fundamentalism...
The second corruption to which multiply-encumbered
citizens are prone is the drift to formless ... storyless selves, unable
to weave the various strands of their identity into a coherent whole. Political
Community depends on the narratives by which people make sense of
their condition and interpret the common life they share; at its best,
political deliberation is not only about competing policies but also about
competing interpretations of the character of a community, of its purposes
and ends... At a time when the narrative resources of civic life already
strained - as the soundbites, factoids, and disconnected images of our
media-saturated culture attest - it becomes increasingly difficult to tell
the tales that order our lives. There is a growing danger that, individually
and collectively, we will find ourselves slipping into a fragmented, storyless
condition. The loss of the capacity for narrative would amount to the ultimate
disempowering of the human subject, for without narrative, there is no
continuity between present and past, and therefore no possibility of acting
together to govern ourselves.
Since human
beings are storytelling beings, we are bound to rebel against the drift
to storylessness. But there is no guarantee that the rebellions will take
salutary form. Some, in their hunger for story, will be drawn to the vacant,
vicarious fare of confessional talk shows, celebrity scandals, and sensational
trials. Others will seek refuge in fundamentalism. The hope of our time
rests instead with those who can summon the conviction and restraint to
make sense of our condition and repair the civic life on which democracy
depends."
According to Thomas Hobbes...
... people need an authority to put them into
place and tell them a truth that is taken as the Truth.