...the liberal faith is not merely unsupported by the available facts but inconsistent with them as well. The facts are that evil is prevalent in all human societies; the vices of selfishness, greed, malevolence, envy, aggression, prejudice, cruelty, and suspicion motivate people just as the contrary virtues do; and both virtues and vices may be autonomous or nonautonomous, natural and basic, or the products of external influences. It would be as implausible to claim that these facts testify to human wickedness as it is to base the faith in human goodness on them. If the facts warrant any inference, it is that human beings are morally ambivalent.
The liberal faith, however, flatters humanity by painting a rosy picture of wonderful possibilities, while neglecting the hard facts that it cannot accommodate. It is a sentimental falsification that substitues illusion for reality....
- John Kekes, Against Liberalism, 40.
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