It has supported Imperialism and Anti-Colonialization, the Nation-State and the subversion of the Nation-State, homosexuality and anti-homosexual laws, that society should be divided by class, sex, race and that it should not be divided by class, sex and race. Not unreasonably it makes people think that the same philosophy cannot support these contradictions, but Liberalism can and does.
The reason why is because unlike most Ideologies it has both a public and a private face. It has it's core beliefs that are not really talked about in public because they sound like what they are, crazy. So instead it puts forward it's public face which talks about slogans. These slogans are designed to fulfil two functions, firstly they are there so that people can project onto it whatever they want, secondly it is there to stop people from thinking. 'I support liberty', okay but what does that mean? 'I support the environment', okay but what does that mean, and on and on we go. What do these words mean? They have a dictionary definition, but rarely can someone define what these slogans mean, instead they repeat the slogan or something very close to it.
Because at the core of Liberalism are a set of beliefs that very few people support and very few would vote for. All Ideologies are Christian heresies, because Christianity is the foundation upon which everyone of them is built. They believe in the need to create a heaven on Earth, complete with it's own Gods. Not a God, but all of us being Gods. in Man replacing any need for God. Instead we will be perfect people living under a perfect system of government within a perfect economic system.
These are the core beliefs of Liberalism and the only thing that separates it from the other ideologies is how to reach it's endpoint. Liberalism has two virtues, it's patience and it's ability to work within the system. Which also means that it rarely seeks violent solutions to it's problems. It always try's to appear to be the good guy in any situation. But at it's core is the idea that you and I and indeed the entire world is perfectible.
Do you believe that?
Would you vote for someone who said that they supported perfectibility?
I know I wouldn't, because that would be crazy and right there is why I don't support Liberalism, in either it's old or it's new version.
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Solid points made here Mark. I must admit to being one of the people who has claimed that liberalism is turning into something else.
ReplyDeleteI think you make a great argument about it's public and private faces, which makes me think twice about my assessment. It may start feeling like neo-feudalism to us, but really it's still liberalism with a few constraints thrown on those who it disapproves of - which, really, has always been the case, it's just the definition of who is an enemy changes because once again that's how liberalism rolls!
Cheers, take care