A must-read thoughtful attack on Liberalism, both in its authentic and contemporary ersatz forms, by a French writer who signs herself Iphigénie, translated by Robert Oscar López:

Hence we are led directly to the corollary of progressivism, the shunning of a past that one views as utterly “anti-intellectual.” Progressivism fosters two of the major phobias of liberalism, stagnation and retrograde. Placed in an accusatory formula, the liberal finds refuge in the enthusiastic endorsement of societal reforms (presented as so many ‘advancements’) that only serve to feed their illusions of progress. Who cares about usefulness, justice, or benevolence regarding the changes that are being pushed? And who minds their absurdity? At the risk of invalidating liberal thought, one must change! One must change womanhood, one must change the TV station, one must change sexuality, clothing styles, teaching methods, ways of reading, cars, porno sites, cell phones, civilization … in all, from the moment that it is possible for such things to be still new.

For the liberal, new is the same as “good, ” new is the Triumph of Progress. There is no point in explaining to him that in their time, slavery and Zyklon B were also novelties, as well as apartheid, poisonous acids, thalidomide, the atomic bomb or the Khmer Rouge: if told as much, the liberal will have an immediate outburst and will brush away all that does not fit into his vision of “the meaning of history”, ascribing bad things to the rank of temporary errors or regrettable relapses into anti-intellectualism. He doesn’t see that the future can be clouded and that the changes to humanity have so often given birth to monsters.

His whole personhood depends on it.

Read the whole thing.

Hat tip to Maggie Gallagher.