Limited versus Omnipotent Government In his sweeping history of five centuries of Western civilization, From Dawn to Decadence, Jacques Barzun identifies the end of World War I as the crucial turning point to begin the decadence, decay, and demise of the West. It was after this war that the West suffered from what Barzun terms “The Great Switch,” the replacement of liberalism by liberality, the impostor claiming its mantle but in reality being its exact opposite.14 Liberalism triumphed on the principle that the best government is that which governs least; now for all the western nations
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