13 maio 2008

land of personal freedom


In chapter 5 of his book Liberty or Equality, under the title "The Political Temper of Catholic Nations" (see my post below), Eric Kuehnelt-Leddihn argues persuasively about several cultural characteristics of Catholic countries, like Portugal. Here are some of them:
a) why democracy does not last in such countries;
b) that the natural political traditions of these countries are anarchism and some form of caeserism;
c) how democracy in such countries leads to anarchy and caos;
d) why rational public debate in such countries leads nowhere (first because of the absolutizing of truth in these countries; second because truth is reached in Catholic countries through conscience, which involves emotions, rather than through reason).
e) why Catholic countries are the land of personal freedom, nonconformism and personal independence.
f) how the French Revolution led Catholic countries astray, a situation that remains true to this day (i.e., the institutions, such as democracy, and the ideology, such as that of egalitarianism, arising from the French Revolution do not fit Catholic culture).
g) why Catholic peoples are more tolerant on racial issues;
h) why institutions, and the society at large, are run much more by sentiments of personal affection rather than by duty or respect for law.

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