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The Specious Origins of Liberalism The Genesis of a Delusion by Anthony M. Ludovici Britons Publishing Company London 1967 - p. 5 - Contents Chapter          Page         Preface 7 I         Aristocracy and the Mob 9 II         Divine Right of Majorities 26 III         The Liberal Prescription 32 IV         Rulership and Responsibility 37 V         The Danger Signal 43 VI         Phantom Life-Belts 48 VII         The Sanctity of Private Property 53 VIII         Liberalism and the Reformation 58 IX         The Natural Iniquity of Man 64 X         Left-Wing English Utopia 74 XI         Religious and Political Sophistry 79 XII         Cloud-cuckoo Liberal Inhumanity 83 XIII         Heredity and Aristocracy 90 XIV         The Tone-setting Élite 94 XV         Constitutional Monarchy 99 XVI         Royalty's Sins Against Itself 105 XVII         The Bourbon Dynasty 111 XVIII         Louis XIV 115 XIX         Louis XV 121 XX         Aristocracy's Sins Against Itself 128 XXI         Quality in Human Heredity 133 - p. 6 - Chapter          Page XXII         Primogeniture and Selection in Matrimony 138 XXIII         The Profanation of Private Property 146 XXIV         Privilege and Public Service 153 XXV         Indiscipline in Aristocracy 156 XXVI         Habitual Anarchy 161 XXVII         Psychological Myopia 166 XXVIII         Fornication Without Tears 170 XXIX         The Universal Ache of Envy 174         Bibliography 181         Index 187 - p. 7 - Preface "To believe in democracy, you must believe in the essential goodness of common humanity." F. M. Cornford. Among the many remarkable changes witnessed in my lifetime, none has struck me more forcibly than that which has occurred in the relative importance of Religion and Politics. For, whereas in my childhood and youth religion was still the principal field where fervour and fanaticism reigned, it has been my fate to see political doctrines and ideologies completely supersede it in all adult minds.         It is as if the decline in religious Faith which has accompanied the spread of education and enlightenment, by preventing mankind from gratifying its need of some absorbing belief, had avenged itself by seizing on politics as an alternative field in which to exercise the human susceptibility to fanaticism.         Nor is the word "Fanaticism" inapt in this connection. For if it suggests the inclination stubbornly to believe in tenets and principles the validity of which is more assumed than proved, no more appropriate term could be found for the way in which many of the political persuasions struggling for supremacy in the modern world are now both held and advocated. But of none of these political persuasions is the term "fanatical" more deserving than Liberalism; for in this modern surrogate for a religious creed, there is so much which only blind faith could accept, and above all, in the passionate devotion of its supporters, there is so much intolerance and impatience displayed towards the holders of other political beliefs, that the parallel with the attitude of the Mediaeval Church, when in the heyday of its power, is conspicuous.         In my youth there was certainly hostility and rivalry between Liberals and Conservatives; but however bitter the antagonism, it never went to the length of branding the other side as "in- - p. 8 - decent", "disreputable" or actually "despicable". Yet to-day Liberalism has attained to this height of arrogance and presumption. With its command of most of the channels of publicity — again like the Mediaeval Church — it has succeeded in so convincing people all over the habitable globe that the doctrine of Liberalism is alone orthodox and excellent that in the popular mind he who disputes the Liberal Maxims is regarded as little less than a criminal.         Words such as "Fascist", "Nazi", "Reactionary", and even "Tory", have acquired pejorative meanings which are beginning to associate them with guilt and shame. So that they imply as much infamy as the words "Heretic", "Free-thinker" and "Blasphemer" did in the days of Luther and Melanchthon. And to see Politics of the Liberal stamp assuming this over-weening and insolent attitude is all the more surprising seeing that the tenets and principles on which its Faith is founded, are as incapable of surviving a narrow and searching scrutiny as are the crudest superstitions of primitive savagery.         This book is therefore an attempt in this eleventh hour of expiring sanity to expose (he false assumptions and truculent vacuity of these very tenets and principles, and to outline a constructive means of combating them. It consists of twenty-nine chapters which approximately coincide with articles on The Specious Origins of Liberalism contributed to The South African Observer between March 1961 and January, 1963, together with slight additions drawn from a series on The Importance of Racial Integrity published in the same journal some years earlier.         The idea of reproducing these articles in a book came originally from various readers of The South African Observer who wished to possess them in a permanent form; but I have to thank the Editor of the journal in question, Mr. S. E. D. Brown of Pretoria for kindly permitting me to meet his readers' wishes. ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI Ipswich, Autumn 1966

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