A false opposition

3quarksdaily: Sentimentality or Honesty? On Charles Taylor:

"... how the Western liberal can reconcile a preference for liberal democracy with the illiberalism necessary for cultural preservation or self-preservation ... "

This is a false opposition because it assumes the impossibility of accommodating the two. The only way to do this is to acknowledge which is the higher value. Democracy trumps ethnic self preservation if they are in direct conflict. But when democracies are working well, the ethnic realities can be preserved within the context of a greater and more fundamental unity.

In the case of Quebec I do not feel that the maintaining of French as a dominant language is a barrier to such larger unity.


Global Online Privacy