Society as a Department Store

By Ryszard Legutko

In Society as a Department Store Ryszard Legutko wrestles with the emancipatory ideology promulgated by postmodernists, libertarians, and liberal thinkers. Legutko argues that modern Western liberals have embraced a revolutionary ethic; they have turned their backs on their own cultural heritage, and used its political and ideological apparatus to destroy classical metaphysics and epistemology. The book considers the paradoxical implications of this state of affairs for Eastern European intellectuals arguing that, with the triumph of liberalism over communism, these intellectuals feel compelled to digest an ideology that shares many elements with the oppressive system from which they just liberated themselves. Based on hubris rather than genuine humane concerns, Legutko mourns not simply the loss of faith in classical Western culture, but the way in which that loss is becoming a central point of identity.

Chapter 3 Society as a Department Store Chapter 4 The Trouble with Toleration Chapter 5 Plato's Two Democracies Chapter 6 On Postmodern Liberal Conservatism Chapter 7 Was Hayek an Instrumentalist? Chapter 8 The Free Market in a Republic Chapter 9 On Communist Illusion Chapter 10 Intellectuals and Communism Chapter 11 Sir Isaiah Berlin: A Naive Liberal