J. Budziszewski on Liberalism

“That is the real significance of the Casey plurality’s “right to define one’s own conception of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life” (and my excuse for returning to it yet again). This proclamation is every bit as religious as the Nicene Creed, a veritable anthem of nonjudgmentalism–yet what a judgement! Have I blown up the Oklahoma federal building? According to my concept of existence, maybe those people weren’t real. Have I tortured and raped the woman in the next-door apartment? According to my concept of meaning, maybe her suffering wasn’t meaningful. Have I gathered some buddies and kicked a homeless man into a coma? According to my concept of the mystery of human life, maybe he didn’t have a life. Don’t forget, I have a right to my definitions. Everything is permitted, nothing denied, for I am the center of the universe I define.
Such is the logic of liberalism, but the Supreme Court resists logic, as liberalism always must. It hoards its elixir carefully; the acid of nonjudgmentalism may be uncorked from time to time, but only to dissolve the judgements of someone else. This raises the interesting question of how long a universal solvent can be bottled up. Eventually it melts through the cruet.”
-J. Budziszewski in The Line Through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction page 182-183


