"Wallis the preacher might disagree with Ivan but graciously allows for the reality of sin in all human institutions and thus the need for government control.And where, pray tell, does the "preacher" find the persons to run and administer the government who are without "sin"? Why is it that he believes some imperfect persons in positions of power in government will make better or more virtuous decisions than all the other imperfect persons they control?
And where, pray tell, does the "preacher" find the persons to run and administer the government who are without "sin"? Why is it that he believes some imperfect persons in positions of power in government will make better or more virtuous decisions than all the other imperfect persons they control?
Exactly!
That is the core, irreconcilable flaw at the heart of all liberalism, and it renders the entire project irredeemably false. Liberalism simply cannot answer that question, which means that the sole justification for their actions and their policies ends up being naked aggression, nothing more, nothing less - certainly not the highminded rationality liberals have deluded themselves into believing they still possess.
Precious few liberals/leftists are willing to admit as much; Mao was one of the few exceptions, who more or less admitted that all the flowery language about rights and justice and merit were mere window-dressing, meant to camoflage the ugly truth that, for communism, socialism, and all species of thought that are similar to liberalism, "power flows from the barrel of a gun."