Why Liberalism Failed

By: Patrick J. Deneen

Narrated by: Brian Holsopple

Has liberalism failed because it has succeeded?

Of the three dominant ideologies of the 20th century - fascism, communism, and liberalism - only the last remains. This has created a peculiar situation in which liberalism's proponents tend to forget that it is an ideology and not the natural end-state of human political evolution. As Patrick Deneen argues in this provocative book, liberalism is built on a foundation of contradictions: It trumpets equal rights while fostering incomparable material inequality; its legitimacy rests on consent, yet it discourages civic commitments in favor of privatism; and in its pursuit of individual autonomy, it has given rise to the most far-reaching, comprehensive state system in human history.

Here, Deneen offers an astringent warning that the centripetal forces now at work on our political culture are not superficial flaws but inherent features of a system whose success is generating its own failure.

©2018 Patrick J. Deneen (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

A Paean to a Better Future

In this controversial but brilliant and masterful work, Patrick J. Deneen diagnoses the political and economic ills around us as endemic to the liberal order that spawned them. He correctly condemns calls for increased progressive independence from communal and religious standards as causes of increasingly deracinated and despondent individuals. He likewise correctly attributes the financial hamster wheel on which more and more of us find ourselves sprinting to an increasingly globalized market long embraces by free market conservatives. Unfortunately, he incorrectly smears America’s Founding Fathers with misquotes and context tricks as progenitors of both problems. Likewise, he consistently relies on concocted ecological narratives aimed at driving socialism among the credulous yet preening elites who proudly proclaim, “Science is real” while ignoring scientific findings and gritty trade offs in favor of an airy and evanescent Druidical and pagan religiosity. Finally, he naively repeats the trope that Marxism magically vanished in 1989, in spite of overwhelming evidence that it continues to drive many of the political ills he despises. With those serious and significant flaws accounted for, however, the remaining argument is still a refreshing and healthy antidote to much of the rhetoric of woke social justice warriors on one hand and the plutocratic Davoisie on the other.

An Attempt at a Revolutionary Diagnosis

This book is easy to listen to. The prose flows well and the arguments are constructed through lots of repetition. It is hard to miss the points of the author. The narrator does a very fine job.

What is attempted in this book is grandiose. It is to convince the reader that all the modern ills of the world stem not from neoliberalism, progressivism or any other -ism that can be traced back a few decades or a century, but from design flaws deep within liberalism itself. Which liberalism, you may wonder. The very liberalism that is at the base of all western modern democratic countries. It should be mentioned at this point that, although this book attacks the Liberal world order it mostly describes modern America and is written very much from a contemporary American conservative perspective.

The arguments used are a mixture of traditionally socialist anti-capitalist points (alienation, atomisation, loss of community, consumerism, self-interest of the elites, GDP-growth-worship), a large dose of reactionary conservatism (cultural pessimism, moral panic, disregarding progress, importance of virtue), and a pinch of environmentalism (acknowledgement and fear of climate change). At its most interesting, the book brings all of these together and urges swift action for the sake of the future. Yet, when it comes down to telling us how, the way forward, according to the author, is, essentially, becoming virtuous communitarian Christians who read the Great Books of the western canon.

You might think I am exaggerating. Well... No. I really am not. The Catholicism of the author severely restricts his horizon and his political imagination. The final chapter of the book reads like a manifesto that calls good people to action. It encourages the formation of a post-liberal political paradigm. Yet, given how things have been presented up to that point, the author seems to wish much more for a pre-liberal world where his values would go uncontested.

If I am so unimpressed with this book's conclusion, why 3 stars?

It is an interesting window into the mind of a sophisticated conservative thinker who isn't afraid to criticize the market as much as he does the state. This is a refreshing approach that is worth anyone's time. Especially since the text is very accessible. That said, his grand theory, which equates rampant capitalism, technocratic managerial statism and excessive individualism with liberalism, is, however, so grand that it implodes under its own weight.

Contradictions we feel...

...producing social unrest that seem unresolvable, Deneen connects to the “operating system” of Liberalism. Highly thought-provoking.

Interesting Identification of the Problem...

Deneen's book was interesting, but didn't provide any concrete alternative solutions for going forward other than a kind of "let's hope for the best..."

Must Read!

This book paints a clear picture of where we were, where we are, and where we are going in American culture. The author covers great thinkers and writers from Plato and Socrates to James Madison and Wendell Berry. It is a grave warning that we are getting closer to the end of democracy as we know it.

Thickening & humbling

Listened to this great book just after completing Rod Dreher’s Benedict Option (others too). I’m certainly new to this search, but I guess I’m a journey trying to understand, asking God to help me apply the ‘faith seeking understanding’ principle to my (our) current historical locus. As Deneen so frequently alludes to, we’ve lost touch with a deeper and richer (would argue Christ centered, hmm, ‘classical’) anthropology.

Brilliant book.

This is once in a generation book. Chapter 2 should be mandatory reading in any Political Science course. Though the book is only for thinking people and not for casual readers with lesser minds.

Hey, that's where John Doyle got that from!

...was what I was thinking through the whole thing. Inspirational and revealing description of how we got to where we are politically.

Interesting take on recent political trends but...

Interesting perspective on recent political trends but ultimately unconvincing. The analytical reasoning is lacking at times unfortunately.

The water we swim in

The review title says it all; listening to this book is like being a fish, and having the concept of water explained to you. anyone interested in what is happening in the world right now should read this book.