by John Gray, I'm inspired to re-frame a previous attack on American Exceptionalism in a new light. American Exceptionalism, particularly when used by liberal and neo-liberals to justify 'democratization' and 'state-building' foreign policies, misunderstands what is the greatest good for a people. While concepts like freedom, human rights, and the right to self-determination are noble ideas in theory, they are not timeless. Nor yet are they particularly useful if established in the wrong circumstances. In the link above, Gray does a fine job deconstructing the myth of universal human rights. In this post, I will try to do the same for the concept of freedom and illustrate, through an application of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, how promoting freedom at the cost of a number of other needs is ultimately detrimental to a society.
Showing posts with label liberal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label liberal. Show all posts
Friday, February 25, 2011
Hierarchy of Needs
After reading a review of Samuel Moyns' The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History by John Gray, I'm inspired to re-frame a previous attack on American Exceptionalism in a new light. American Exceptionalism, particularly when used by liberal and neo-liberals to justify 'democratization' and 'state-building' foreign policies, misunderstands what is the greatest good for a people. While concepts like freedom, human rights, and the right to self-determination are noble ideas in theory, they are not timeless. Nor yet are they particularly useful if established in the wrong circumstances. In the link above, Gray does a fine job deconstructing the myth of universal human rights. In this post, I will try to do the same for the concept of freedom and illustrate, through an application of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, how promoting freedom at the cost of a number of other needs is ultimately detrimental to a society.
by John Gray, I'm inspired to re-frame a previous attack on American Exceptionalism in a new light. American Exceptionalism, particularly when used by liberal and neo-liberals to justify 'democratization' and 'state-building' foreign policies, misunderstands what is the greatest good for a people. While concepts like freedom, human rights, and the right to self-determination are noble ideas in theory, they are not timeless. Nor yet are they particularly useful if established in the wrong circumstances. In the link above, Gray does a fine job deconstructing the myth of universal human rights. In this post, I will try to do the same for the concept of freedom and illustrate, through an application of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, how promoting freedom at the cost of a number of other needs is ultimately detrimental to a society.
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