New Threats to Freedom
Edited by Adam Bellow
With Anne Applebaum
In the twentieth century, free people faced a number of mortal threats, ranging from despotism, fascism, and communism to the looming menace of global terrorism. While the struggle against some of these overt dangers continues, some insidious new threats seem to have slipped past our intellectual defenses. These new threats are quietly eroding our hard-won freedoms, often unchallenged and, in some cases, widely accepted as beneficial.
In New Threats to Freedom, editor and author Adam Bellow has assembled an all-star lineup of innovative thinkers to challenge these insidious new threats. Some leap into already raging debates on issues such as Sharia law in the West, the rise of transnationalism, and the regulatory state. Others turn their attention to less obvious threats, such as the dogma of fairness, the failed promises of the blogosphere, and the triumph of behavioral psychology.
These threats are very real and very urgent, yet this collection avoids projecting an air of doom and gloom. Rather, it provides a blueprint for intellectual resistance so that modern defenders of liberty may better understand their enemies, more effectively fight to preserve the meaning of freedom, and more surely carry its light to a new generation.
Contributors include: Anne Applebaum, Bruce Bawer, Peter Berkowitz, Max Borders, Richard A. Epstein, Jessica Gavora, Michael Goodwin, Daniel Hannan, Alexander Harrington, Mark Helprin, Christopher Hitchens, Robert D. Kaplan, James Kirchick, Greg Lukianoff, Barry C. Lynn, David Mamet, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Tara McKelvey, Mark T. Mitchell, Michael C. Moynihan, Chris Norwood, Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Naomi Schaefer Riley, Christine Rosen, Ron Rosenbaum, Stephen Schwartz, Lee Siegel, Christina Hoff Sommers, Shelby Steele, and Dennis Whittle.
New Threats to Freedom is the book that started the New Threats to Freedom Series, which you can learn more about at newthreatstofreedom.com.
Introduction • Where Have All the Grown-ups Gone? / ix
Adam Bellow
1. The Decline of American Press Freedom / 3
Anne Applebaum
2. The Closing of the Liberal Mind / 14
Bruce Bawer
3. The New Dogma of Fairness / 24
Peter Berkowitz
4. The Urge to Regulate / 35
Max Borders
5. The Isolation of Today’s Classical Liberal / 46
Richard A. Epstein
6. Single Women as a Threat to Freedom / 56
Jessica Gavora
7. The Loss of the Freedom to Fail / 67
Michael Goodwin
8. The European Union as a Threat to Freedom / 76
Daniel Hannan
9. Bad Political Theatre / 87
Alexander Harrington
10. The Rise of Antireligious Orthodoxy / 98
Mark Helprin
11. Multiculturalism and the Threat of Conformity / 110
Christopher Hitchens
12. The Tyranny of the News Cycle / 119
Robert D. Kaplan
13. Transnational Progressivism / 126
James Kirchick
14. Students against Liberty? / 137
Greg Lukianoff
15. Belief in False Gods / 147
Barry C. Lynn
16. The Fairness Doctrine / 152
David Mamet
17. The War on Negative Liberty / 162
Katherine Mangu-Ward
18. The Abandonment of Democracy Promotion / 171
Tara McKelvey
19. Ingratitude and the Death of Freedom / 181
Mark T. Mitchell
20. The Anticapitalists / 189
Michael C. Moynihan
21. The Rise of Mass Dependency / 199
Chris Norwood
22. Liberty and Complacency / 211
Glenn Harlan Reynolds
23. Threats to Philanthropic Freedom / 220
Naomi Schaefer Riley
24. The New Behaviorists / 230
Christine Rosen
25. Cyber-Anonymity / 240
Ron Rosenbaum
26. Shariah in the West / 248
Stephen Schwartz
27. Participatory Culture and the Assault on Democracy / 259
Lee Siegel
28. The U.N. Women’s Treaty as a Threat to Freedom / 268
Christina Hoff Sommers
29. The Illusion of Innocence / 280
Shelby Steele
30. Orthodoxy and Freedom in International Aid / 290
Dennis Whittle
List of Contributors / 301