Notes on Confusion

I spent a good part of my summer reading cures for liberalism. One prescribed a limited but activist government; another a colorblind, egalitarian nationalism; others an affirmation of democratic universalism, a revival of civic republicanism, a program of economic populism, or a judicious mix of autonomy, diversity, and solidarity. I agreed with them—all of them, even ones that contradicted others or were self-contradictory. In public philosophy anything seems possible, so in the reading s...