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The Tyranny of Liberalism: Understanding and Overcoming Administered Freedom, Inquisitorial Tolerance, and Equality by Command

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I had the honor of listening to and meeting the author of "Tyranny of Liberalism," James Kalb, at a recent ISI conference held at Yale University. Kalb shared the stage with several other prominent thinkers - some were entertaining, all were intelligent, but there was something about the quite intensity of his mind that I found engaging. I purchased the book, ran home, and read it cover to cover. I have been teaching political philosophy at the university level now for over 8 years and I can honestly say that "Tyranny of Liberalism" is one of the best books written on the challenges facing education, security, and freedom. I do not wish to give away too much of the book, but I will say that ISI is to be commended for publishing this important book and Kalb is to be honored for his courage to challenge the dogmatic relativism (how is that for hypocrisy?) of the left and the corrosive acid they pepper on our cherished beliefs in morality and civil liberties on a daily basis. The writing is clear; it is like looking through a clean sheet of glass without evening being aware of it; the arguments are tightly reasoned. He is never preachy, just rational and pragmatic. For those considering this book the best comparison to it that I can think of is Roger Scruton meets Tocqueville. Buy this book, you will not regret it.
The publisher should offer a few sample pages for preview!

_The Tyranny of Liberalism: Understanding and Overcoming Administered Freedom, Inquisitorial Tolerance, and Equality by Command_, published in 2008 by ISI Books, by author James Kalb is an important book which offers some very edifying reflections on the nature and tyranny of liberalism and the rule of the technocratic elite. As Kalb notes, liberalism is really the ideology of a ruling class and in today's world it has become virtually all-consuming. Any and all public opposition to the dictates of liberalism is instantly stifled and dismissed in various ways as bigotry, intolerance, or outright psychological instability. Nevertheless, there exist real and profound reasons why one should reject this reigning ideology and real and profound reasons why it has largely failed. However, given the political climate and the near total control of all mainstream institutions by liberals it has become impossible to offer any sort of real opposition to it. Kalb sees hope however in decentralized efforts at overcoming liberalism, small enclaves of opposition thinkers, private scholars, small businessmen, and religious and local communities may remain the last resistance against this powerful ideology. However, the fact that within mainstream discourse liberalism is regarded as synonymous with such obviously apparent and self-evident goods as freedom, tolerance, and equality indicates how far of an uphill battle it must be in opposing it. Despite this, as Kalb effectively lays out and has become apparent to many individuals, liberalism is profoundly unfree, intolerant, and unequal. This book manages to not only show the glaring deficits in liberalism, but also offers some alternatives and ways to oppose the system.

In his "Introduction", Kalb explains what he means by "the tyranny of liberalism". He asserts that liberalism is ubiquitous and to many the notion that it may be tyrannical is incomprehensible. Nevertheless, he seeks to show that liberalism is indeed tyrannical and that there may be alternatives to it. Part 1 of this book is entitled "Decline and Fall". The first chapter is entitled "Liberal Tyranny" and explains how liberalism has become tyrannical and what this notion really means. Kalb explains how many see liberals as high-minded and idealistic and broad-minded but that they really are none of these things. Rather liberalism has become tyrannical and has done great damage to the traditional understanding human beings have had of themselves. The rise of political correctness, bureaucracy, the reign of money and expertise all speak to this tyrannical nature of liberalism. The second chapter is entitled "Principles" and here Kalb lays out the principles of liberalism and how it has managed to triumph in the West. Kalb considers the alternatives to liberalism including populism, Islamic fundamentalism, East Asian authoritarianism, and Marxism and fascism all of which have either failed in the West or have never existed in the West. Kalb then explains the nature of liberalism tracing the philosophy that began with Thomas Hobbes and John Locke to its further development and culmination in John Rawls. Kalb considers the development of liberalism, its growth from the High Middle Ages through the Protestant Reformation to the American and French revolutions and to the modern day. Kalb considers the maturity of liberalism in the modern day secular West and the transformation of liberalism from classical liberalism with its emphasis on small government and private property and liberty to modern day political correctness which has become big-government and totalitarian. Kalb also considers the relationship between liberalism and power noting the role of technocracy and the importance of market, bureaucratic, and industrial forms of organization as opposed to decentralized forms such as the family. Kalb also considers the importance of rationality for liberalism including in particular the importance of scientific rationality and subjectivism, but notes that some leftists have embraced irrationality. The third chapter is entitled "Institutions" and here Kalb considers the rise of liberal institutions. Kalb considers the development of liberalism noting the role of multiculturalism, scientism and tolerance, tolerance and social control, the rise of global capitalism, and the false notion of liberal "human rights". Kalb also considers non-liberal institutions noting how liberals dismiss such institutions as fostering discrimination and bigotry when in fact they frequently are far more tolerant than liberal institutions. Kalb also considers a comparison with other regimes noting how liberalism is really the ideology of a ruling class, a technocratic elite, and the "Fourth Estate", while contrasting liberalism with its traditional enemies in the West such as the Catholic church, though noting how in recent times much of Catholicism has been co-opted by liberalism as well. The fourth chapter is entitled "Through the Looking Glass" and explains how liberal institutions frequently lead to results which are quite opposed to their stated aims. Kalb considers such things as a reversal of meanings, positive neutrality, forced consent, and censorship as freedom. Following this, Kalb examines the notion of secular theocracy, noting how liberalism behaves as a religion with a persecutory zeal. Kalb also considers the notion of the universal individual and the destruction of identity within liberalism as well as the fundamental contradictions of liberalism. The fifth chapter is entitled "Are Objections to Liberalism Overstated?" and considers the claim by many liberals that liberalism is "limited" and therefore that the objections do not really apply. However, Kalb considers such things as the fact that ideas have consequences, fine-tuning of liberalism, dubious gains made by liberalism, the triumph of tolerance, and the fact that liberalism is not limited and has crept increasingly towards tyranny. The sixth chapter is entitled "Irrationality and Self-Destruction" and here Kalb shows that liberalism is fundamentally irrational and contains the seeds of its own demise. Kalb considers such issues as the insufficiency of liberalism, the rise of scientism, questions about the "good", and the rise of hedonism, and finally the twilight of liberalism. Part 2 of this book is entitled "Up From Tyranny". The seventh chapter is entitled "Blind Alleys" and considers some of the possible responses to liberalism and their failures. Kalb considers the possibility of leftist responses to liberalism including the leftist response of radicalization of liberalism, an appeal to irrationalism, or the abandonment of justice altogether. Kalb also rejects the possibility of a "third way". Kalb then considers the possibility of a "simple conservativism", and conservativism in America which is fundamentally a compromise with liberalism and an appeal to the Founding Fathers. Kalb considers such possibilities for conservativism as constitutionalism, neoconservativism, libertarianism, populism, and religious conservativism. He finds each of these problematic in its own way, yet notes that such principles as constitutionalism, libertarianism, and especially populism seem to offer some hope for resistance against liberalism. Kalb notes that what is fundamentally needed is conservative thinkers who can offset the balance of liberalism which populism must fundamentally lack. The eighth chapter is entitled "Putting It Back Together" and considers the relationship between reason and tradition. Kalb considers such topics as the role of reason, the failure of scientism, the importance of tradition, the notion of universals and stereotypes, and the importance of justice. The ninth chapter is entitled "Faith and Authority" and explains the importance of faith. Kalb considers such things as the role of faith and the threat to faith of modern secular liberalism, the role of the church (which has become increasingly co-opted by liberalism), and the relationship between church and state. The tenth chapter is entitled "Bringing It All Back Home" and makes the important case for traditionalism. Kalb considers the possibility of traditionalism, a traditionalist movement, the possibility for local action, and offers some demands that the traditionalist can make of liberal society. These demands show how fundamentally unjust the liberal society actually is. The eleventh chapter is entitled "Looking Forward". Kalb explains that the immediate outlook for traditionalism is bad, but that liberalism appears to have exhausted its possibilities. Kalb calls for decentralized action as an effort to formulate and provide an alternative to liberalism that may be taken up once it becomes apparent that liberalism as a system has failed.

This book offers some profound and important observations on the role of liberalism and the tyranny that has evolved from such a state of affairs. Kalb makes the case that liberalism is in fact neither tolerant nor free as it claims but increasingly comes to assume tyrannical proportions. While recognizing that the immediate situation looks grim, Kalb offers some hope for alternatives which may eventually come to replace liberalism as it becomes more apparent that it has failed to achieve its aims. As such this book offers some very useful and important reflections for those who are different and recognize the fundamental flaw of liberalism.

At times frightening, this book certainly rings true. Far from the modern political pundits, this book dives deeper into human nature and natural law. Many other reviewers have already done an excellent job in describing the work, so I will save some time and merely say that for the true intellectual conservative, this is a must read.

~James Kalb is a humble (Catholic-Christian) soul, but probably one of the greatest living intellectuals of "rightist" meta-political philosophy living today.

Kalb is not celebrated in the "popular" "conservative" "intelligentsia" simply because 1) he is Christianly self-effacing; and 2) Kalb is immeasurably intellectually superior to 99.9% of fashionable American conservatives, who are, in fact, not conservatives at all but pallid poseurs, half-witted barbarians, and self-deceived moral cowards, enshackled in their brainwashed confinement to the metaphysical presuppositions underlying the paradigm of liberalism they use as orientation-point for their "conservatism of idiocy." Kalb represents a different and better path for whatever is left of true conservatives in the endarkened West, and its ultimate extreme of fallennness in the variegated, multiform decadence of America, as symbolic "Far West"...

The intellectual excellence and moral integrity of Kalb as expositor of actually conservative values and beliefs is an enheartening ray of light in the midst of near all-consuming darkness...

The modern American-mutilated concept of "conservative" is a fetid joke to be scorned in justifiable incensed indignation, because the modern Western-American "conservative" has not only failed himself, but the Godhead rebelled against in the cesspool of concupiscence masquerading as "conservatism" the Western-American pseudo-conservative has descended into, in sheer bestial baseness of soul and spirit. Kalb shows what a Western conservative *Ideally* should exist as...

Kalb is heroic in his unsparing, elegant and logical shredding apart of the rationally paper-thin presuppositional foundations of the now-moribund demo-liberal order, or rather, I should say, its vomitous corpse. "Democracy" and "liberty" are conceptual necrotic nihilities, forever unregenerate and extinguished.

Thank you Sir Kalb for so scholastically wielding the Misericorde of irrefutable meta-philosophical, inwardly axiologically indestructible and unassailable Transcendent Truth, using humanistic rationalistic logic only to rightly point out its own limitations, and finishing off in genteel manner the hollow daemonic numen of "democratism" with grace and ease...

Today, the only possibility for real Bearers of Order and so-called "Rightists" is attaining soul-depth in intensive moral self-sculpting, study of metaphysics and becoming nobilitated in metaphysical self-transfiguration beyond the heinous deviltries of modernity, and, on the political plane, expounding a *metaphysically-grounded* "Revolutionary Reactionism", or "Reactionary Revolutionism"--the orientations of yesterday are hopelessly outmoded and useless when the State itself becomes an enemy of moral and metaphysical Order.

The real conservative is not an idolater of static political forms, but potentially a white-hot tyrannicidal insurgent and Vehmic revolutionist against State-supported Godlessness and inverted, horrifically raped Justice. Thus, the terms of old no longer hold "absolutistic" meaning. Semantics should not dominate the issue here, but the goal of lucid verbalization is inescapable. The real conservative is *NOT* the plutopornocratic monstrosity and piratical counter-elite parasitic sub-classes of MORAL VAMPIRISM empowered in contemporary America (and the West generally), who, in their spiritually desensitized, psychopathic, vapid egotistic minds think the word "conservative" translates into "mafia-patterned entrepreneurial shallow capitalist-commercialist gold-lust and idolatry of materialistic phantasmata"--the very opposite of true conservatism!!!--in which, e.g., a vicious soul-dysfunction and God-dishonoring vile enterprise like...pornography...is simply a "moral neutralist" possibility of icily loveless "business operation", ripped out of any Transcendent framework of God-based Natural-Divine Law, the Lex Primordialis and the AGAPE central to Christianity, and orthodox-catholic Christianity *IS* the supernatural element preventing the West from complete self-implosion into lawlessness and final suicidal entropic self-dissolution, psychologically, culturally, ethically and spiritually.

Spiritually-brutalized, stone-hearted American morons self-identifying as "conservative", only perhaps equaled in immoral beastliness and philistine barbarity of soul by the Russian gangster-socialists of previous decades, implicitly presuppose "conservatism" is somehow a "license" for "Machiavellian-Nietzschean", social Darwinist aggression in febrile, frenzied pursuit of accumulation of earthly "gain"--commingled in this problem is the "Protestant work ethic" of Americanism, in which Calvin functioned as a virtual pimp for the upstart financial and commercial bourgeoisie--WRONG THERE, again, Americanist defilers of Sacred Order and the Telos of the Godhead. Conservative *truly* means "conserving" what is timeless and essential morally and teleologically for the well-functioning of Adam-kind--*NOT* to be identified with morally-parasitic idolic accumulators of vast, unprofitable external wealth (-- who won't even nobly dispose of this pointless wealth magnanimously, creatively in terms of culture, or morally, in honorability! Ill-use of riches rightly self-indicts the new rich --),--AGAIN, falsely conflating "conservatism" with the mafias, plutocratic pirates, masonic synarchic cabals, and various other species of counter-elites embedded within the nauseating, putrid vulgarianism and decomposed wretchedness of the Western-American political system...is fallacious.

Kalb is extremely meritorious and worthy of exceptional respect and honor for unveiling a hint to the brutish, painfully ignorant Westerners and Americans of today what actual "conservatism" means philosophically and meta-politically. Kalb represents a rare, manful exemplar of counter-subversive bravura and penetrating intelligent wisdom, a fear-inured counter-cultural heroic spirit and emblem of hope for the shipwrecked Western-American aspirants of metaphysical and moral Order. To take his unavoidably lonely, because *onto-theologically and morally principled* stance, in the filthy Anarcho-Nihilist void nothingness of Sadean sub-humanity and neo-Sodom of spiritual necrophilia that is Western-American modernity...is a grand achievement.

A book that is truly a magisterial work. Read this book.
I recommend it highly. As a fellow "rad-trad" along with the author,
I am reminded that when all is said and done;
"sed confidite ego vici mundum."

This book is written in a detailed and academic style, but its arguments are persuasive and rock solid. Citations are excellent and worth of perusing in and of themselves. The book overall is very well written and edited. Kalb is a master of brevity and I did not notice a single error with the text.

I don't think anyone with an open mind and familiarity with logic could disagree with the premise of this book. As for the solutions - well, that's another matter and one inherently restrained by the tyranny about which the author writes. Overall, this book is essential to anyone who wishes to oppose the present liberal regime that dominates the west.

While I tend to agree with the conclusions the author reaches with regard to "liberal" society, there were times where I had to really get over my notions about the source of such conclusions. That should not stop anyone from reading this well written look at liberalism, even those who consider themselves liberal. To be sure, you'll have to check your preconceived notions at the door - but it's well worth it.

"The Tyranny of Liberalism" was a disappointment for me because I could not finish it, I got about one third into it, but the writing level seemed to be purposely dense, as if to impress you that you can't read this sucker. I think it might be one of those books written as a college thesis or to beef up a scholarly resume', in which case, it truly is meant to seem too smart for mere mortals to comprehend.

I bought it because the ideas that I thought were discussed in it are interesting to me, but it is just not an accessible read for me.

When I was in the Air Force, whenever a report had to be written, the enlisted would get out a thesaurus and write really long sentences with uncommon words, trying to impress. Similarly, I took some film study courses in college, where the textbooks tried way to hard to seem "scientific" and "scholarly," by hiding behind really dense writing that was hard to read, as if being hard to understand was the same thing as teaching something really weighty and important.

That reminds me of this book, except this book's author seems to have some great ideas, he just seems to be having trouble explaining them to the reader. This book has really long sentences that are too complex to follow. It's like you have to struggle to understand the sentence structures. I can understand the ideas presented, but they just are not presented in a way that is easy to absorb.

I would instead recommend a conservative writer like Thomas Sowell, who is established as a wise writer of conservative thought, and he is very good at explaining the core forces at work in the struggle between liberal and conservative values. Intellectuals and Society A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles

Many ideas didn't make sense--- for instance to connect "political correctness" as an outgrowth of classical American Jeffersonian liberalism. The neo-conservative new right seems to be doing this, but, in fact, political correctness is totally, historically from another tradition, people, and so on. Political correctness is related to communist writers from Marx to Gramsci and Lukas etc. They HATED the agrarian ideal of Thomas Jefferson and were opposed to what he advocated as a way of life. There is a radical disjuncture between these ideas and they are not reconcilable. Because of the attacks by the political correct on those of classical "liberalism" (as evidenced in the agrarian ideal of genuinely Western people such as Jefferson, and coming from other writers s/a Dostoyevsky, one can't simply try to make this and much more a connected, related history. Odd.

The modern conservative movement is made up of three ideologies; Libertarianism, Traditionalism and anti-communism /strong defense. After reading this book one can conclude that the author is a dedicated social conservative. His thinking is heavily influenced from this wing of the modern conservative movement. He is obsessed with the social order, moral values, culture, religion and traditions.

Historically social conservatives have found liberalism a threat to their belief system. This conflict dates back to the origins of the Conservative movement itself. This book is a continuation of this natural conflict between traditionalism and liberty. Although Mr. Kalb targets modern "extreme" Liberalism, one has to wonder if he also has a problem with traditional libertarianism as well (ie Tea-Party movement, Rand and Ron Paul) or a problem with the founders idea of "Liberty of Conscience". His distinction is not clear.

Mr. Kalb's problem with liberalism boils down to its rejection of traditionalism rooted in religion, traditional institutions, custom and family that are needed to maintain an orderly society and keeper of our moral values. That if man does not accept a concept of good and morals outside of himself, then man's desires and wants become the measure of his morality.

That there is a divine pre-ordained natural order that should not be disrupted via social experiments, whims or feelings of the time. He criticizes liberals for creating institutions that attempt to regulate social behavior. This line of thinking has been used to maintain the natural order of African-Americans as second class citizens. He implies that the civil rights movement was a disruption to the natural social order (p64). That change should have been slow and more calculating. This is an easy and safe position when you belong to the group that benefits from racism. He seems to expect oppressed people to well behave and accept slow change. What he forgets is that oppressors do not voluntarily cede and stop oppressing and share power. They must be made to do it. Slow change works for the oppressor, not the oppressed. "Rights delayed is Rights denied" - MLK.

On page 122 He claims that before the changes of the 1960's African Americans were experiencing progress in economic, social and cultural affairs. This is so blatantly not true one wonders if this is just blind denial to support his arguments for slow change. If things were so good, why the civil rights movement? He also argues things got worse for African-Americans after the 1964 civil rights act due to radical change. One could also argue things got worse for blacks after the civil rights of 1964 is more to do with conservatives hijacking the Republican Party to cater to angry white segregationists. Racism was used to divide poor blacks from poor whites to get votes. Racial fears exploited for political gain. They then restructured racism into our society in new forms. Namely the conservative movements war on drugs which dis proportionally targeted blacks.

His argument against liberalism is targeted against "extreme liberalism". This is fair since all extremes should be avoided, including extreme conservativism. But he takes it too far by attributing all of society's ills to liberalism. The decline of moral values, such as degradation of entertainment, decline in intellectual and cultural standards, mindless partisanship, decline in common sense and increase in economic disparities. I agree these are real valid current social concerns, but is conservativism guilt free? It also makes me wonder when he speaks of liberalism, is he also speaking of classical economics? Libertarianism's unregulated free-markets and pursuit of unlimited profits. Money can be made promoting and selling garbage (from Hollywood to talk radio), free speech becomes a commodity. Consumerism, debt and materialism degrades our moral fiber, creates wide economic disparities, but it is all good for profits and individual gain. If he includes Libertarianism I can accept some of his argument. But his distinction is not clear when he speaks of extreme liberalism. Is he only targeting left-wing liberalism or right-wing liberal economics as well?

In the second half of the book he presents his solution to liberalism. After careful analysis of the different conservative philosophies, their strengths and weaknesses, he offers - Traditionalism with reason.I figured this out in the first chapter.

In this book I learned more about social conservatives and their irrational fears of liberalism - It makes me wonder - anything that threatens religion and God; such as evolution is not just an affront to religious beliefs, but also an affront to conservatism itself. Social conservatives and religion are much more closely aligned to form a political philosophy than I realized. This might explain why conservatives so strongly defend Intelligent Design.

This book is a theoretical and philosophical argument against "extreme" liberalism. He uses sweeping generalizations, conjectures, straw man and stereotyping, which he himself acknowledges. So much so that he dedicates a chapter to his defense in doing so.

He does not support his observations and conclusions with any actual studies, scholarly analysis or research, or real life examples of the negative impact of liberalism on society and where traditionalism has worked. This is just his brain dump. The book is redundant hitting the theme of "equal Freedom" and "Man the Measure" to no end. The repetitive liberal bashing without substance made it somewhat a boring read. The man is a good thinking, but like all conservative thinkers, big on theory and short on practical solutions.