For the counter revolution of the Right, the truth revealed about humanity in society is exactly the opposite of the Rousseauian claim: Society is not nature’s corrupter, but its civilizing force. “What is government,” an American founder wrote, “but a reflection on human nature?” And: “If men were angels, there would be no need for government.” Man is not born free, but a lifelong slave to his unruly passions. It is only the civilizing limits of the social contract that can liberate the anti-social beings of nature into the constitutive orders of a productive and communal life.
- The Politics of Bad Faith
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