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By Andrew Murray SM
For several weeks now, I have been discussing different aspects of liberal society. The fundamental reason for doing this is that it is
the kind of society in which we live, so if we are to work for its betterment or, indeed, for its evangelisation, we need to understand it. This is not necessarily easy, particularly for many older Catholics, who,
in their civic education and public lives, learnt to prize the freedoms that this kind of society offered but who, in their religious education and private lives, often found reasons for rejecting the kind of
society that provided these freedoms.
Liberal society, as we live it, does have its problems, as does any society. I will mention just four, which are in various ways interconnected. Firstly, liberal society
offers ready opportunities for the strong to succeed in pursuit of their own interests to a far greater degree than the weak. Although this is in a general sense an ancient problem, it takes on new forms and calls
for new solutions in a liberal society.
Secondly, built as it is on individuals, liberal society does not readily recognise natural communities. This has placed enormous stress on the family in its various
senses. Life can also be difficult for each member of such society because the notion of a radically independent individual is in some respects a fiction and a recipe for loneliness.
Thirdly, it appears many
people have found liberty a burden and have sought ways to fulfil their desires without having to stand alone. According to Michael Oakeshott, the Marxist proletariat or some aspects of political parties work in
this way. ‘The people’ attempt to have their way, not by acting independently but by being told what to think by a leader. Fourthly, many fail in the concomitant responsibility of freedom, namely, to exercise
freedom well or, in other words, to generate a morality that not only makes claims for individuality and freedom but also explores the exercise of freedom in relation to other persons and to the world as a whole.
The conduct of the feminist movement in recent decades seems to be an example. That women would be liberated was in large part inevitable as liberal ideas penetrated more deeply into the particularities of life.
That the movement has been so violent and that it has had so much difficulty in shifting its focus beyond its own immediate claims for liberty is puzzling.
The broad moral dispositions of a society and the
political forms that support them are not static. Nor, apart from revolution, do they change suddenly and drastically. They change by way of the absorption of new ideas and by amendment of existing practices.
Understanding the problems of the way we live is the first step in our attempts to be participants in its slow evolution.
Fr Murray teaches philosophy at the Catholic Institute of Sydney.
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