Only Meta-ideology to Put Justice First

That would be (if now going out of date) ‘old Liberalism’.

Stephen Yearwood
2 min readNov 5, 2024
Photo by Thomas Ashlock on Unsplash

There are three meta-ideologies in this world: (in chronological order of their appearance) Liberalism, Marxism, and Fascism. Each has spawned narrower, more culturally specific political ideologies (national in scope).

Liberalism sought to define justice and to form a conceptual framework for the governance of society based on that understanding of justice. Marxism rejects the very idea of justice, writing off ideas of justice off as a means by which the ‘ruling class’, well, justifies its exalted position in society. If challenged, any good Fascist will assert that a Fascist society would be a just society — but only because it would be ‘what a society is supposed to be’. That is to say, it would be ‘just’ because it would be Fascist — which is not at all the same as saying that it would be Fascist because it would be just. Only Liberalism has even attempted to go there.

The understanding of justice that is the foundation of Liberalism is going past its ‘use by’ date. Its conceptual and practical inadequacies are being exposed. As a result, Liberal societies are either in or moving towards crisis.

For people who care about justice and want to live in a just society, a new and better understanding of what justice is has become necessary. Here is one idea: “A New Liberalism” (here in Medium, but not behind the paywall).

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Stephen Yearwood
Stephen Yearwood

Written by Stephen Yearwood

M.A. in political economy (money/distributive justice) "Please don't confront me with my failures/ I'm aware of them" from "These Days," as sung by Gregg Allman

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