"The independence of the economic sphere was a tenet of faith with Liberalism"
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Treating the economy as its own self-governing planet is not just policy to Yockey; it is a creed. “Tenet of faith” is the tell: he’s not describing Liberalism as a pragmatic toolkit but as a quasi-religion that smuggles moral certainty into what it insists is value-neutral. The phrasing loads the argument in advance. If the “independence” of the economic sphere is a dogma, then markets aren’t simply efficient or inefficient; they’re a sacred domain protected from democratic meddling, cultural priorities, or national purpose.
That’s the subtextual move: delegitimize liberal economics by casting it as theology. Once Liberalism is framed as faith, its claims to objectivity look like pious self-justification, and its defenders become clerics for an order that pretends it isn’t an order at all. Yockey’s target is the liberal separation-of-powers instinct applied to society: politics over here, culture over there, economics somewhere “free,” insulated from collective ends. He’s attacking the idea that you can quarantine money from meaning.
Context sharpens the edge. Writing in the mid-20th century, Yockey is part of a reactionary, anti-liberal current that read the postwar Western settlement as decadent: individualist, commercial, fragmented, unable to mobilize as a civilization. In that worldview, “independent” markets are less a safeguard against tyranny than a solvent, dissolving hierarchy and binding commitments. His intent isn’t to improve Liberalism; it’s to unmask it, then clear space for a politics that re-subordinates the economic sphere to a larger cultural and national project.
That’s the subtextual move: delegitimize liberal economics by casting it as theology. Once Liberalism is framed as faith, its claims to objectivity look like pious self-justification, and its defenders become clerics for an order that pretends it isn’t an order at all. Yockey’s target is the liberal separation-of-powers instinct applied to society: politics over here, culture over there, economics somewhere “free,” insulated from collective ends. He’s attacking the idea that you can quarantine money from meaning.
Context sharpens the edge. Writing in the mid-20th century, Yockey is part of a reactionary, anti-liberal current that read the postwar Western settlement as decadent: individualist, commercial, fragmented, unable to mobilize as a civilization. In that worldview, “independent” markets are less a safeguard against tyranny than a solvent, dissolving hierarchy and binding commitments. His intent isn’t to improve Liberalism; it’s to unmask it, then clear space for a politics that re-subordinates the economic sphere to a larger cultural and national project.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
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