The Liberal Line

Operation Blurring-of-Distinctions

The British Parliament, it used to be said, can do anything except make a man a woman (and, legally speaking, can do even that). The Liberal movement, as it has developed through the decades since the French Revolution saddled us with the idea of the “rights of man and of citizen”—of rights inhering in all individuals by the mere fact of their being individuals, and entirely without regard to the duties they perform—is under no such limitation. If all God’s chillun got rights, the same rights, then the distinction between man and woman, that between elder and youth, that between folk of good family and folk of indifferent family, that between the intellectually and morally excellent members of the community and the dregs of the community, are irrelevant for purposes of statecraft. Being irrelevant, they must not be allowed to get in the way; and if they cannot be abolished then at least they can be blurred, and made to seem unreal and arbitrary.

WK

About the Author

Willmoore Kendall

Featured Tags

Operation Blurring-of-Distinctions

The British Parliament, it used to be said, can do anything except make a man a woman (and, legally speaking, can do even that). The Liberal movement, as it has developed through the decades since the French Revolution saddled us with the idea of the “rights of man and of citizen”—of rights inhering in all individuals by the mere fact of their being individuals, and entirely without regard to the duties they perform—is under no such limitation. If all God’s chillun got rights, the same rights, then the distinction between man and woman, that between elder and youth, that between folk of good family and folk of indifferent family, that between the intellectually and morally excellent members of the community and the dregs of the community, are irrelevant for purposes of statecraft. Being irrelevant, they must not be allowed to get in the way; and if they cannot be abolished then at least they can be blurred, and made to seem unreal and arbitrary.