Is There a Conflicting Impulse in Human Beings?

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I do think there is two conflicting impulses in human beings. We have a desire to be free, but we also want someone who knows better than i do what's good for me. And our culture, increase only is tolerant of all choices. Anything you do, as long as it's your choice and it feels right to you, that that is to be honored. I look at part of the failure of my philosophy to influence the world more than it does because people don't really want make their own choices so much. You could say we have the worst of classical liberalism and the worst of progressive liberalism combined there.

Political Scientist and author Patrick Deneen of the University of Notre Dame talks about his book Why Liberalism Failed with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. By liberalism, Deneen means the modern enterprise--the push for self-actualization free of the constraints of tradition, family, and religion that typifies modern culture. He argues that both the left and the right have empowered the state and reduced liberty. He argues for a smaller, more local, more artisanal economy and a return to the virtues of self-control and self-mastery.