Whither Individualism?

Abstract

Peter Lawler intelligently challenges conservatives to make the best of Lockean individualism, to recognize its natural limits and its debt to Christianity, and he downplays Tocqueville’s concern that a loss of virtue must lead to a rise in statism. But he does not see clearly enough that individualism and statism have always been two sides of the same coin, or that the Christian pedigree of Lockean individualism is not necessarily good news. It is true enough that individual liberty will always depend upon virtue, but it does not follow that liberty will always generate virtue. If the failure of virtue does not lead to statism, then where it does lead may still not be very pretty.