J’accuse: Liberal Democracy on Trial

Mishra writes with such passion that it makes one’s hair stand on end. Every word is like the blow of a hammer on an anvil that shouts out to the proponents of liberal democracy, ‘J’accuse!’ There is so much to explore in this book but no more than the vicious verbal assault on the preening Scottish, I wish I was American, historian Niall Ferguson. The relish that Mishra brings in tearing apart Ferguson is a little like watching a small boy pull apart a fly, leg by leg, then the wings pluck pluck, and then squishing the head between thumb and forefinger. My only complaint is that as far as I can tell he does not offer up any alternative or explain why competing philosophies have fared worse or disappeared altogether. Because it just may be that even though liberal democracy and its champions made many murderous mistakes, that at the core of liberal democracy the heart of fairness beats and this is why after all these years it still survives as the best way of organizing society. Marshal the forces of fairness. A must read, again and again. Whew!

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