Viswanathan K's Thoughts

Once upon a time if a party (or individual) lost an election fairly, they would accept the verdict. Once upon a time, if a legislation that one disliked was nonetheless passed through parliament according to constitutional procedures, one accepted it. One just bit one’s tongue and waited for the next elections to get back in power and do things differently, if that was what the (new) majority of the people wanted. Not today. With the rise of illiberal parties world over from the US to Turkey to Poland to Hungary to Brexit (to India?), Adrian Vermeule writes that: “Academics, journalists and other intelligentsia… spend their careers in a state that can only be described as professional hysteria.” But why has the acceptance of the verdict gone for a six? Why, wonders Vermeule, it is that “experimenting with nonliberal versions of democracy” provokes such rabid breast beating? Vermeule’s answer is provocative. He says that historically liberalism “made an alliance of conve...

When the rally in Paris happened after the Charlie Hebdo murders, I was curious: What was the purpose of this rally? What were they trying to show? To whom? Turns out it may have served a purpose after all. I say that after reading Andrew Sullivan’s blog : “I was actually surprised and gladdened by the response to the slaughter – an overwhelming wave of revulsion and disgust, expressed with great dignity and courage .” That dignified, non-violent response has robbed the liberals of the world the option of changing the topic on Charlie Hebdo. Their choice to never call a spade a spade is visible to all: “Even now, many will not concede that religion was the root cause of the attack, and that the name of that religion is Islam.” The usual weasel approach of the liberals flies in the face of the facts, says Sullivan: “(They say)   Islam has nothing to do with this. There are just a few loonies who are suffering from false consciousness, and their real motivations are econo...