Corinthians, it was once said, worshipped at the tomb of the unknown god. Liberals worship at the tomb of the unknown principle; they'd be prepared to die for their beliefs, if only they knew what they were. Nowadays the creed, at least among political philosophers, recalls the fate of the Old Left: implacable certitude combined with smithereened factionalism. At the same time, liberalism routinely gets a drubbing from multiculturalists, who think either that liberals should smile indulgently on practices like clitoridectomy, or that the fact that they don't shows that liberalism fails to deliver what it promises.

LRB 7 June 2001 | PDF Download