The new totalitarians …

… The University Bookman: Solidarity Against the Present Discontent. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

If Legutko experienced classic totalitarianism in a Poland under the Communist boot, he has also been witness to the “soft tyranny” that has accompanied the victory of liberal democracy in the years since 1989. Liberal democracy, too, has become associated with “thoughtless social engineering,” with a project to make every social institution—churches, the family, higher education, civil associations—“liberal-democratic” in its internal functioning and in its ultimate goals and aspirations. Thankfully, this project is not accompanied by any gulags or the systematic mendacity that defined Communist theory and practice (or by a denial of political accountability through elections, at least at the national level). But we do see all around us today the illiberal reign of a “political correctness” that increasingly brooks no dissent. It is tempting to dismiss Legutko’s analysis as overstated, but the evidence he amasses more than supports his argument.