Why "liberal" is not a dirty word.

An article entitled “Liberalism, post-liberalism and loneliness” on Conservative Home pressed one of my several Hot Buttons. It happens whenever the words "liberal" and "liberalism" are used as though synonymous with something that is detrimental to human well-being. For me, when people disparage "liberalism", they might as well be disparaging oxygen.

The article suggested that loneliness is encouraged by “liberalism”: surely, a thesis that is less than convincing. Plenty of people, especially those who do not fit into the conventional mould, feel lonely and isolated in socially conservative or authoritarian societies.

The fact that half of marriages break up is certainly a cause for dismay, but it is not a reason for attacking liberalism. Many people feel very lonely in unhappy marriages where their emotional needs are neglected by a self-absorbed, unfaithful or abusive partner. Societies and legal systems informed by liberalism give such people the freedom to escape from their personal hells, and the hope of improving their lot.

As far as I’m concerned, liberalism has to do with freedom of choice, and is at the very heart of conservative values. We have seen too many regimes, and individuals, that blight human lives by imposing drab conformity and constriction under duress. It is the common value of liberalism that is today under attack on our streets by religious extremists: and it is something very much worth defending, not disparaging.

Which brings me to the writer’s inclusion of the term “secularism” in the list of liberal vices. “Secularism” tends to be a stock term these days used by dogmatic religionists to denigrate non-religious values. A number of people who use the term do not seem to know what it means. “Secularism” is the separation of the state from religious institutions. It does not mean “atheism”. It is perfectly possible to be a devout religious believer, and a secularist.

“Liberalism” is a value that places a high premium on the citizen’s freedom to choose, and to not be forced into any more conformity than is pragmatically necessary. People will often make poor choices, but that is the price of freedom: and when we encounter news about the oppression of people living in Islamofascist and other oppressive states, we should feel proud of all the socially liberal conservatives who continue to fight for people’s freedom to determine their own lives, both at home and abroad.


© Gary Powell, 2013