What is Liberalism?

What is Liberalism? September 9, 2008

Here are some brief generalizations about a term we hear a lot these days: liberalism. In our current political discourse, it is a synonym for “more statist” and “more culturally permissive” and “of the left.” This is awkward, as classical liberalism strives for a more limited government and less interference in the workings of market forces. But both uses share the notion that individual freedom is to be highly valued. The individual, in fact, is the fundamental unit of social life. Every adult, under liberalism, should be granted the authority and ability to define one’s own life. Since the philosophical earthquake of the Scottish Enlightenment, most Western political parties – including the Republicans and Democrats – argue within this framework. Here, humans may have multiple purposes, yet they are the best judges of right and wrong, reason and irrationality. Liberal language centers on rights instead of order, virtue, or duty. And so, over time, social conditions based on status (mother, child, group) tend to be replaced by contracts of consenting adults. In times of crisis, liberal regimes tend to resort to a depiction of opponents as enemies of liberal autonomy. I think a great deficiency of liberalism is the inability to recognize the importance of social contexts to individual freedom – in other words, the social sources of individuality tend to be neglected. There is more to humanity than the political state and its instruments of false and forced unity. We must recognize, appreciate, and foster the network of social relationships which lie intermediate to the individual and the state. The most important of these is the source and summit of our Christian existence, the Eucharist. These serve not only as buffers, but as the foundation of moral and social character. More here and here and here.


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