PERENNIAL LIBERALISM

January 30, 2020

A Radical Centrist Approach

  1. Clearly we’re – blessed to be? – living in a time (a Hinge of History moment?) where the ‘old order changeth; yielding place to the new’.
  2. Mankind’s current crisis is defined by the fact that the received politico-economic shibboleths (democratic vs. authoritarian or capitalism vs. socialism) don’t work anymore.
  3. The fundamental reason they are inadequate is because they cannot address the more foundational Existential-Cultural Identity issues that have been raised by globalisation – a failure that is roiling mankind worldwide.
  4. The limitations of the purely materialistic foundations of a ‘secular’ liberalism have been glaringly and severely exposed; particularly when it comes to planet-threatening issues that demand global coordination.
  5. THE way forward, is not to abandon ‘Classical Liberalism’, but to recognise the need for synthesising it with the primordial religious traditions; particularly because the latter have demonstrated multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-national appeal, across the centuries.
  6. Perennial Liberalism – the integration of the Perennial Philosophy with Classical Liberalism – rightfully places the emphasis on methodological individualism; and is therefore THE way forward.
  7. It is the individual’s freedom to decide on her Existential-Cultural Identity as well as on his Politico-Economic choices that are both necessary and sufficient to create a sustainable emerging GloCal civilisation.
  8. The fundamental implication of the Perennial, as opposed to the secular version of Classical,  Liberalism is that the individual needs to be Educated on the NECESSITY of Faith for Liberalism to be sustainable; THE significant lacuna in today’s higher education.
  9. One of the central tenets of the Perennial Philosophy, that is relevant to its distinctiveness from secular Liberalism is: the emphasis on the “Moral Structure to an individual’s Inner Cosmos” and the consequent Necessity of Faith.
  10. This emphasis on the intuited, but rationally unprovable, Moral Structure implies the need to embrace ALL the world’s mainstream religious traditions; since they unequivocally and universally assert this belief in a Moral Structure to a Divine Cosmos.
  11. However the extraordinary diversity of the planet’s Faiths – along with their unfortunate tendency to descend into narrow-minded sectarian warfare – necessitates the need for an intellectual perspective that asserts the Harmony of Religions; which IS the other main distinctive assertion of the Perennial Philosophy.
  12. And the defining practical and applied feature of this Perennial Vision is its emphatic insistence on lifelong selfless Service towards all life-forms – so as to Realise one’s individual Identity as Pure Bliss.