Westphalianism poisoned the liberal project from the beginning. The state is an entity inherently separate from the people which it governs, and which bears no inherent legitimacy. It is laughable to believe that pacifism in the face of tyranny could lead to anything but mass murder, and it is laughable to believe that a tyrant would ever stop a war of aggression simply because they received a pile of strongly-worded letters.
Natural law is above all written law, and this must be upheld if we are to maintain our liberal democracies in the long term. We should not let states which operate outside the bounds of natural law weasel their way into their continued existence in their current form through appeals to procedure and sovereignty. Sovereignty comes from a popular mandate, and nothing but a popular mandate.
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damn liberals, they’ve ruined liberalism
Westphalianism poisoned the liberal project from the beginning. The state is an entity inherently separate from the people which it governs, and which bears no inherent legitimacy. It is laughable to believe that pacifism in the face of tyranny could lead to anything but mass murder, and it is laughable to believe that a tyrant would ever stop a war of aggression simply because they received a pile of strongly-worded letters.
Natural law is above all written law, and this must be upheld if we are to maintain our liberal democracies in the long term. We should not let states which operate outside the bounds of natural law weasel their way into their continued existence in their current form through appeals to procedure and sovereignty. Sovereignty comes from a popular mandate, and nothing but a popular mandate.