"Communitarianism"

Without an adequate understanding of politike, of which a humane scale is a fundamental part, then a communitarian spirit readily lends itself to statism

Speaking at the general audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Oct. 20, the pope said that the coronavirus pandemic had exposed a flaw in the dominant notion of liberty.https://t.co/fllWLonEwd

— Catholic World Report (@cworldreport) October 20, 2021

David Cayley on Non-Vax Passports

Even a fraction of the rhetorical fury spewed at “anti-vaxxers” would be hate speech were it directed at any protected class.https://t.co/Gvj8l9bPFC

— First Things (@firstthingsmag) September 17, 2021

Massachusetts Republicanism

The four Massachusetts institutions that were "Principal Sources of that Wisdom in Council, and that skill and Bravery in War, which have produced the American Revolution"

1. Towns
2. Churches
3. Schools
4. Militia

John Adams to the Abbé de Mably (1783)https://t.co/p7ImiPpjql pic.twitter.com/4AUfmhOD3z

— Pavlos Papadopoulos (@pleonidasp) June 22, 2021

Sebastian Junger on the Tension Between Individualism and Dependence

Bestselling author @sebastianjunger examines the tension between individualism and dependence that lies at the heart of what it means to be human. He joins @MattGallagher0 via livestream to share what he has learned. https://t.co/4HHMTNHnqO

— Town Hall Seattle (@THSEA) May 17, 2021

Feedom

“It’s freedom from oppression that you have a right to; it’s not freedom from obligation.”
— Sebastian Junger (@sebastianjunger)

Listen to my full interview with Sebastian: https://t.co/Ff2xPN5L8P pic.twitter.com/IsGMeQCM1G

— Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) May 12, 2021

We walked 400 miles, and most nights we were the only people who knew where we were. There are many definitions of freedom, but surely that’s one of them.https://t.co/k6hpKW23Do

— Sebastian Junger (@sebastianjunger) May 13, 2021

Freedom!

That which is rare is valuable. pic.twitter.com/mWqc3LLBeT

— Sebastian Junger (@sebastianjunger) May 3, 2021

Freedom!

Thrilled to announce FREEDOM, which explains how people across the ages maintain autonomy in the face of more powerful foes. Humans are unique in that ability, and were that not true, the powerful would always dominate. Thankfully, they don’t. Avail 5/18: https://t.co/eFN3dUiyZl pic.twitter.com/6ENV3VcAhM

— Sebastian Junger (@sebastianjunger) April 13, 2021

Related:

Today, I’m joined by Jack Donovan to talk about the roles of masculinity, individual responsibility, the heroic ideal, and why we as men look to the Gods and what we can learn from them.https://t.co/zQaWooR5Rr pic.twitter.com/KLZMUkUStS

— Ryan Michler (@ryanmichler) April 13, 2021

Everything revolves around taking care of one another and putting our #PeopleFirst pic.twitter.com/3Yfg4aVqa1

— 3rd Special Forces Group 🇺🇸 (@3rdSFGroup) April 16, 2021

Find your tribe.

The Free Market Doesn't Exist

But neither does the free state.

"The free market doesn't exist. What we have is a system that’s run in the interests of a tiny elite where states, financial institutions, businesses, the wealthy collaborate in order to generate outcomes that benefit themselves."

Me on Moral Maze pic.twitter.com/gesMRAQyhd

— Grace Blakeley (@graceblakeley) October 22, 2020

Liberty Is Being Targeted in the Anglosphere

Look, this is important. Britain is being ruled by decree, like some banana republic. Parliament is dead. What are you going to do about it? https://t.co/B4cOPhVMoS

— Peter Hitchens (@ClarkeMicah) September 6, 2020

It never ceases to amaze me how the sense of Australians being independent, even wild people doesn't at all comport with the creepy totalitarian government they live under https://t.co/NdW9i6a5WH

— Arthur Bloom 🇺🇸 (@j_arthur_bloom) September 7, 2020

A Liberal Trumpets Individualism Against Aristotle

ISI: INDIVIDUALISM IN ANCIENT GREECE by John W. Danford
An excerpt from Danford’s Roots of Freedom: A Primer on Modern Liberty, which is apparently out of print.

You've heard the phrase, "man is a political being."

There are two problems with it: https://t.co/kJpbMZDh2D

— Intercollegiate Studies Institute (@ISI) May 26, 2020

Liberal Republicanism

A subversion of a good regime with bad assumptions about society. Yankee personal background? Or just his intellectual background?

Republican Liberty and the Failure of Substantive Due Process by James R. Rogers

Republican liberty means that people are not subjected to the arbitrary will of another, which is slavery. Hence, the repeated identification by the American colonists of the abuses of British rule with an intent to reduce Americans to the status of slaves. The argument wasn’t that Americans asserted the British designed to make chattel slaves of Americans. Rather, the Americans argued that if the principle be granted allowing for arbitrary governance, then they had conceded the critical principle distinguishing freemen from slaves, and there was no logical stopping point between their state and the state of abject slavery.

If citizens are subjected to the will of some who are not accountable to them, how is that republicanism? This is a very poor definition of liberty, if that is all there is to it. Liberty means not being ruled by another, first of all by a foreign power, and second, by a domestic power which has no just claim to authority. As for the will being the principle under consideration, rather than order or reason, I don't know if the author is being sloppy or deliberate in espousing some form of voluntarism. Slaves are subject to the rule of another, it may be just or it may be unjust, and whether it is to be judged arbitrary or not depends on whether the good of the one ruled is considered or not. (I am not going to explain here how the good of the slave is to be taken into account and what protections slaves should have from their masters, except to say that there are standards of justice prohibiting masters from harming their slaves unjustly.)

Daniel Mahoney on Liberty

"The regime of modern liberty desperately needs old wisdom—American and European—to avoid abandoning with contempt its own crucial, humanizing, and elevating preconditions."

Daniel J. Mahoney at @ClaremontInsthttps://t.co/BCnLepYlgK

— Josh Hochschild (@JoshHochschild) May 12, 2020

Indeed

Relevant to yesterday's post about writing. One of his best interviews. @nntaleb

“If you do something you don't like, it sort of corrupts your personality”

soul in the gamе | μεράκι | meraki
Талеб објашњава шта је мерак. Мерак га слушати. pic.twitter.com/tfKUzSfQXx

— Smiljana Skiba (@MasaSkiba) May 4, 2020

English Translation of Le Figaro Interview with Pierre Manent

First Things: Time to Wake Up by Pierre Manent

Pierre Manent: While waiting for things to unfold we note the return of the least likeable features of our State. In the name of a health emergency, a state of emergency has in fact been established. In the name of this emergency, the most primitive and brutal of measures has been taken: general confinement under police surveillance. The speed, the comprehensiveness, and even the eagerness with which the repressive apparatus was set in motion painfully contrast with the delays, the lack of preparation, and the indecisiveness of our policies of sanitation, whether concerning masks, tests, or potential treatments. Innocent or benign missteps are punished with exorbitant fines. We are forbidden from leaving our residences without passports, but the reestablishment of national borders is still considered a mortal sin. I do not believe the crisis is rehabilitating that State. 

As for the nation, it has been abandoned, discredited, and delegitimized for two generations—just as any thought for industrial policy has been abandoned, discredited, and delegitimized. We have renounced the very idea of national independence. Oh, to be nothing more than a soft and pliant node of specialized expertise in the great network of global trade! And above all, the flux must never slow down! Are we discovering that we are dependent on China for almost everything we need? But we have organized ourselves in order to be dependent! We have willed it! Do you believe that, when we emerge weakened by the economic destruction brought about by the health crisis, there will be many who will be willing to reverse the course that we have been following for forty years?

Peter Hitchens on the UK Lockdown

Related:

A Troublemaker?

Ron Paul: Resistance Building To Coronavirus 'House Arrest' Orders... "It's About Time!"



It is definitely time to make plans about the future and to take those initial steps towards a different way of life.

Peter Hitchens on COVID-19 and Political Liberty

Hitchen's Concern for the Loss of Political and Civil Liberties During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Peter Hitchens: We Love Big Brother

More from Hitchens, most recent blog post first.
The Frightening Implications for Liberty of the Shutdown - An explanation of the Use of Law to Deprive us of Freedom of Movement and Assembly
There's Powerful Evidence This Great Panic is Foolish. Yet our freedom is still broken and our economy crippled
PETER HITCHENS: Is shutting down Britain – with unprecedented curbs on ancient liberties – REALLY the best answer?

Of course, he is not the only conservative to raise the alarm about the possible loss of liberty. But what sort of political rejection of such measures would be possible, even if people could be energized to defend their liberty?

See also:
The Modern State During COVID-19​ by Jonathan Harris
We should not surrender our liberties to fight the virus.


A different view: We Are All Totalitarians Now by Guillaume Durocher
Coronavirus Brings Back the Spirit of the Polis


Also: 
Is Hungary’s Orbán Using the Pandemic to Impose Dictatorial Rule? by Will Collins

But VD supports and trusts Orban.

Inspired by Liberty and Virtue

One of the Few Good Things Currently Up at the Law and Liberty Website

Belloc’s Humane Defense of Personhood and Property by James Matthew Wilson
Perhaps the memory of that metaphysical right to property informs our fears, and could lead to a restoration of human flourishing.