Lee Harris on cosmopolitanism and patriotism

(See preceding post) . . . . How is it possible for liberal cosmopolitans to claim the moral high ground in debate with political particularists? This, Harris implies, results from the prevailing intellectual habit of preferring abstract ideals to realities. The utopian ideal of a nonexistent world community is compared with a "living, breathing community of real men and women" and found to be superior. Such a comparison is "a bit like saying that the novel I intend to write one day will be far superior to War and Peace because of my intention to make my novel perfect".

The true choice facing us is not between particularism and liberal cosmopolitanism, but between "actual historical communities that embody the values of liberal civilization to a high degree and those that do not" . . . . CONTINUE