The Fall of the Adolescent Left

A couple of insightful columns by Daniel Henninger and David Brooks highlight the nihilistic world of the elite left. In both cases, we see more clearly the intellectual bankruptcy of modern liberalism. This decline, decades in the making, manifests itself in the move by liberal intellectuals from reformers to critics to parasitic scolds. Once the ideas that animated the left -- civil rights, women's rights, and the like -- went mainstream, they've searched in vain for something else to rally around. Yet today they're faced with a nation whose safety is threatened at home by Third World aggression. This has befuddled the left to no end (post-colonials can't be bad, can they?) and in part explains their inability to articulate an opposing position that demonstrates a serious, adult grasp of the nature and scope of terrorism's threat.

Dan Henninger argues persuasively that the left has either ceased to believe in the existence of evil, or is embarrassed to admit such things publicly. This is part of the devolution of liberal moralism into malign nihilism, a narcissistic, adolescent worldview that relies upon the honor and decency of others to survive.

David Brooks writes today of Michael Moore's recent European tour, during which he described Americans as ignorant, greedy, and generally repulsive. Beyond looking in the mirror to confirm at least some of his charges, Moore might read a few books. He can begin with the authors Brooks cites to illustrate the heights from which modern liberalism has fallen: Reinhold Niebuhr, John Dewey, Martin Luther King, Jr. But that was then; today liberals look not only to Moore for intellectual guidance, but to the likes of Al Gore, Noam Chomsky, and Eric Alterman. Fallen indeed.

It's odd, but modern conservatives, hardened by decades spent forming a coherent philosophy in the face of withering criticism, are almost rooting for the left to get its intellectual house in order. They know that a loyal opposition is better for the nation and for conservatives themselves. Today the most interesting battle of ideas is between factions of the right. That's a sure sign that the left has abandoned the battlefield -- or has it been vanquished? -- for the less taxing role of eternal adolescent.