30/08/2005 11:07:15 am
Vaclav Klaus Warns. In a speech at the Montpelerin Society meeting in Iceland, Czech President Vaclav Klaus warned against the new -isms that claim to have nothing to do with socialism, but still have many common features. Such -isms iclude communitarism, NGOism, environmentalism and radical humanrightism. I agree to a large extent with this analysis and warning, and to some extent with his warnings about European centralism, though I believe that he takes that part way too far. Mostly, he is right on the spot and the rhetoric is very persuasive, thus the article below in The Brussels Journal is worth reading:

"Illiberal ideas are becoming to be formulated, spread and preached under the name of ideologies or ′isms′, which have ? at least formally and nominally ? nothing in common with the old-style, explicit socialism. These ideas are, however, in many respects similar to it. There is always a limiting (or constraining) of human freedom, there is always ambitious social engineering, there is always an immodest ′enforcement of a good′ by those who are anointed (T. Sowell) on others against their will, there is always the crowding out of standard democratic methods by alternative political procedures, and there is always the feeling of superiority of intellectuals and of their ambitions."

Read the article here - >