15 October 2003

Tage Lindbom on tolerance

This is from Tage Lindbom's The Myth of Democracy:

When tolerance is reduced to the mere expression of the general liberal denial of values, it is no longer, as it is claimed to be, an expression of human sentiments and love for mankind. Having reached this point, "tolerance" has lost all meaning and is merely an expression of indifference. It is then only a short way to the demand for a war of extermination against the traditional, the qualitative, the orthodox, the venerable.

Lindbom (1909-2001) was a dissident from the secular juggernaut that swept through his native Sweden in the 20th century. Although his philosophy is rather too platonic for my comfort, he was able to see through the pretensions of especially the ideologies of democracy and socialism. Eerdmans published his book in English in 1996, but unfortunately they have allowed it to go out of print.

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