Shikha Dalmia on ISIS's Existential Threat to Liberalism
One of the things that has contributed to the freak out against ISIS is that it is attracting recruits from the West. Many commentators worry that these Westerners are a product of liberalism's spiritual weakness—its inability to provide a "transcendental" purpose, a cause to die for. And if ISIS is not defeated decisively, they fear, liberalism will only look weaker, producing a loss of confidence and an existential crisis in the liberal West.
But if anything bespeaks a loss of confidence, it is what counts as an "existential crisis" now, notes Reason Foundation senior analyst Shikha Dalmia.