Conversation about Paraliberal Prevalence

Can the Paraliberal Viewpoint Prevail in Our Society?

This is a remark from Malik Ghallab who is a colleague of mine and a personal friend since many years. The remark is followed by my answer. Additional comments are invited and would be most welcome.

Opening Remark

I went to your website, and the following are my first reactions, before having read your book or the papers. I certainly agree with you that social values are essential. From a brief browse through a few pages, you seem to start from a rather theoretical or idealized position. Your Premise 1 on autonomy about "acting using knowledge and reason and guided by responsible values and guidelines" does not unfortunately hold for many if not most of human behaviors. Our thinking remain often quite shallow (eg, Daniel Kahneman's system1 and his illusions of understanding). We need strong social constructs to transcend the animal in us.

Looking at the regression of democracy in many Europeans states, we have not unfortunately been able to build such good social structures. I have no idea about how this can be done, and I suspect that the growing disparities within and between states, and the increasing sources of tensions (in particular those due to climate change) are making things worse. I certainly look forward to discussing these issues further.

Author's Response

Many thanks for your comments. Your description of our current situation agrees quite well with the reasons for developing this website and the publications that it promotes. In particular, it is not only liberal democracy that is being challenged today, but the appreciation and prevalence of individual autonomy (in the sense that you quote) is also in peril,

This calls for a combination of optimism, idealism, and realism. With respect to the latter, I certainly do not propose that the actual behaviors of most humans can be well described in terms of autonomy. What I do propose, as a working hypothesis, is that most humans have a potential for autonomy, and that it is in the best interest of a society if its citizens exhibit autonomy, besides it being in the interest of each individual. It follows that it should be an overriding goal of human society to enable individuals to realize that potential of theirs. -- I believe this is well in line with the idealism of Liberalism's founding fathers, and it is an expression of guarded optimism concerning where the world is going.

With respect to the developments in various European states, I think there is an urgent need for mobilization of the civil society so that it can help with the defense, in the domains of ideology and life stance, against the strong interests and strong tendencies that are so active today. For example, we can see how well-organized agents perform disinformation campaigns, and they are more or less directly supported by some foreign governments, whereas the necessary counter-measures seem to be much less organized, and much less effective. Our political parties are dedicated to their controversies within our political framework, and they are not set up to assist in the defense against challenges to that framework itself. Churches and other religious organizations are more or less satisfied with working within that framework, but they are also not going to stand up for its defense. For lack of any other obvious alternative, we may need to develop new organizations or 'movements' for the defense of liberal values and liberal ideals.