"In Search of Lost Liberalism" and "Violence Against Women: A Crisis in Australia?"

In 2024, I had two opinion pieces published about the same time in prestigious (though very different) outlets here in Australia.

"In Search of Lost Liberalism" appeared in August from the left-leaning online public affairs magazine Eureka Street. It's behind a paywall, so you'll need to subscribe to the magazine to have access. Broadly, however, I described and defended the liberal tradition and called for readers to make it great again (to adapt a well-known phrase to different purposes). I discussed the criticisms and attacks that the liberal tradition receives today from seemingly every political perspective, and I argued that liberalism is still worth hanging onto. As I made clear, I was not talking about liberalism in the American sense, which relates strongly to regulation of business and markets, but about the more general and original sense that includes such principles as freedom of inquiry and expression, individual liberty more generally, and the rule of law.

As I state in "In Search of Lost Liberalism":

Liberalism never became a unified ideology or political theory - it was more a tradition or tendency in politics. It had inputs from several groups, including religious non-conformists, free-market economists, utilitarian philosophers, and European thinkers who admired the French Revolution in its early years before the Reign of Terror. It took many directions, sometimes questioning itself, discarding ideas, and changing emphases. Still, there was some coherence and unity. There were some key liberal themes.

Liberals were hostile to any kind of unchecked power, especially arbitrary government power. They accepted that different people would try to flourish in different ways and pursue different kinds of projects and plans. Liberals argued for freedom from many constraints, not solely those imposed by governments but also those demanded by a society’s prevailing attitudes and sensibilities. They showed a degree of optimism in believing that the social life of human beings could be improved through intellectual and moral progress. Liberals opposed ranks based on birth, and sought to eliminate inequalities before the law. This included opposition to aristocracies and racial hierarchies, but it did not necessarily mean there would be no inequalities in economic outcomes.

"Violence Against Women: A Crisis in Australia?" was published in late July in the more libertarian-leaning online magazine Quillette. Once again, it's behind a paywall, so you need to subscribe to Quillette to read it all. In this piece, I responded to calls to declare a national crisis or emergency in Australia following recent some cases and troubling statistics on violence against women - particularly some terrible murders that happened in 2024.

As I pointed out, however, Australia is actually among the safest and least violent countries in the world. At the extreme end, where we're talking about actual murders, violence in Australia is disproportionately directed at men rather than women (though irrespective of the respective sexes of the victims, it is disproportionately committed by men). I chased down and presented great deal of statistical information internationally and over time, and concluded:

Crisis narratives about crime and violence are especially dangerous because they can prompt highly illiberal responses - especially when suspects are denied the right to the presumption of innocence. In addition, such narratives spread division and fear and have polarising effects that can, in themselves, lead to greater violence and danger. Without a reality check, emotionally salient but rare events, such as murders, can seem like ever-present threats, requiring an authoritarian or vigilante response. Men can be feared and demonised, though the worst behaviour comes from only a small subset of men. If we demonise all men as an inherently violent group, we will make useful widespread public cooperation on the issue impossible.

It is also wrong to send fearmongering messages to children and adolescents. We shouldn’t want boys to grow up feeling somehow tainted and vicariously guilty thanks to the actions of a minority of their sex. Neither should we want girls to grow up anxious and scared in what is largely a safe society.

Australia has a reputation as a laid-back, friendly place, and it’s among the least violent countries in the world. But all countries have problems with violence - Australia is no exception. We have our share of violent subcultures and violent men - and some violent women, too. The challenge, then, is to try to push our rates of violence even lower - but without resorting to hyperbolic rhetoric or pretending that we are in the throes of a crisis.