Rousseau’s wish to free the current majority from all restrictions, to dissolve the people into a homogeneous mass, abolish decentralization, and remove representative institutions could not be in sharper contrast to American traditions of constitutionalism, federalism, localism, and representation. ~ Claes G. Ryn, America the Virtuous, p. 73
In his important book, America the Virtuous, Professor Claes Ryn of Catholic University makes the compelling case that Rousseau is the ideological inspiration for the neoconservative movement, which he calls the new Jacobinism. Rousseau conjectured that some nebulous “general will” of the people was always right, and therefore government should have absolute power over a highly centralized and militarized state, all in the name of promoting, if not imposing, “democracy.”
Read Full Article: https://thewashingtonstandard.com/the-rousseau-of-the-right/
