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"To the liberalism they profess, I prefer the liberties we enjoy; to the Rights of Man, the rights of Englishmen." Disraeli
Philosophers love to isolate essences, distilling them from the concrete circumstances which alone can give them coherence. They love to talk about liberty, justice and human rights without mentioning persons and circumstances. But essences without people are like a bowl of white sugar without any food, and slightly more potent: the later will lead to a tummy ache, the former may lead to a revolution. If anyone doubts what I say, just pick up a copy of Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France and read the first section.
The corollary of praising liberty in the abstract, is that it becomes divorced from that sense of responsibility which alone can render liberty beneficial or obnoxious. The separation of liberty and responsibility, like the separation of sugar from food, breeds the idea that liberty is dangerous. This includes the liberties of nations as well as that of individuals. Enter post-nationalism.
As I have noted elsewhere, post-nationalism is the idea that nation states cannot be trusted with freedom, since they might abuse that freedom and produce another Hitler. This was the ideological underpining to the Lisbon Treaty. This treaty, which came into force on 1 December, 2009, removed the remaining vestiges of British sovereignty.
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