Thursday, December 02, 2004  Where have all the liberals gone?
This recent BBC Radio 4 program Where have all the liberals
gone? looked at the bad name liberals have got for themselves in
the US. It also illustrated the definitional problems liberalism
suffers from when you consider the massive difference between
classical and modern liberals. Here is a taste: Liberals even
flip-flop about what liberalism is: an ideology, or a point of
view; a way of using the state, or a way of resisting it. When
liberalism started in the nineteenth century it targeted
tyranny: then, as governments became more democratic, liberals
embraced the state to free people oppressed by poverty and
inequality, and give them rights. In today’s politics
responsibilities displace rights. In a world threatened by
violence and dissolution, electorates demand a state that is
more restrictive, less permissive; less tolerant, more tough. In
America, liberalism’s already a term of abuse.   Post a Comment
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