Introduction
Liberal democracy is not a system suspended in a vacuum. Although modern political theory emphasizes procedures and state neutrality, its durability depends on the myth of brotherhood and cultural identity. Without a strong identification with a shared narrative, this system becomes defenseless in the face of crises. Can a community of free citizens survive when the only bond remains cold, rational calculation? Historical experience teaches that the state needs more than just a contract—it requires homonoia, a deep consensus regarding a shared destiny.
Procedural Republic vs. Axiological Community
In the age of globalization, traditional communities are giving way to procedural republics. These are states that abandon the project of a shared identity in favor of protecting minorities and formal equality. Jean-Marie Guéhenno warns that the lack of a common axis of values turns politics into an arena of endless conflicts that cannot be resolved for lack of a "common measure."
Stability is often founded, as in the case of the US, on a civil religion. The American model combines Enlightenment rationalism with the sacralization of the Constitution, creating an inclusive political nation. A key role is played here by the noble lie—a founding myth that is not a deception, but a necessary narrative allowing individuals to rise above egoism for the sake of the common good.
The Enlightenment: French Radicalism vs. American Order
The legacy of the Enlightenment is bipolar. The French model, based on faith in abstract reason, sought the radical demolition of the old world. This resulted in a spiral of violence and Jacobin terror, which François Furet considered the matrix of modern totalitarianisms. In contrast, the American model focused on the continuity of institutions and mechanisms of checks and balances, protecting against the tyranny of the majority.
Conservative critique, from Edmund Burke to Michael Oakeshott, points to the error of political rationalism. Burke warned that cutting the "Ariadne's thread" connecting generations leads to a loss of orientation. Oakeshott added that politics is a practice, not applied theory—any attempt to mechanically engineer society always ends in coercion.
The Crisis of Reason and the Challenges of Modernity
Contemporary conservative thought diagnoses a deep crisis in Western culture. Roger Scruton describes the phenomenon of oikophobia—the rejection of one's own heritage in favor of abstract universalism. Meanwhile, Joseph Ratzinger warns against the dictatorship of relativism, in which reason is reduced to a technical tool, losing its ability to evaluate goals. Without "expanding reason" to include an ethical dimension, modernity becomes self-subverting.
Against the backdrop of these processes, Ernst Jünger perceived total mobilization, where technology turns man into a cog in a machine, and Carl Schmitt reminded us that the essence of the political is the distinction between friend and enemy. In this clash, the university plays a crucial role as the depositary of cultural continuity. If the academy abandons its mission of transmitting memory, liberal procedure will remain merely an empty game of power.
Summary
The postmodern obsession with debunking myths reduces them to the status of deceptions, which does not make the community more mature but turns it into a market fragment. The only bond then becomes the fear of mutual violence. Sensible politics does not need to idolize myths, but it must nurture them with the care one gives to language. Not so that it is geometrically precise, but so that it remains resonant—capable of sustaining the weight of common life. The myth of brotherhood remains a sine qua non of the modern community, introducing an element of selfless loyalty that transcends the cold logic of self-interest.
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