Originally published at The Catholic Thing
Liberalism found its inspiration in the rhetoric of human dignity, a fine garment within which its unsightly Hobbesian bones and Lockean flesh could be hidden. And it was made from threads spun by Kant, whom Nietzsche aptly labeled a “catastrophic spider,” albeit for the wrong reason. For Nietzsche, Kant preserved the heart of Christian morality by secularizing it. But in reality, what Kant did was to subvert that morality, by replacing its worship of God with an idolatry of man.
