Understanding Classical Liberalism ?

1« Previous thread | Next thread »
- hypocrucifier
- Ending the tyranny of nonsense
- Pub Regular
- The emancipation of TRUTH from perceptions
- offline
Understanding Classical Liberalism ?
OP - August 25, 2012, 01:14 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l0zA5469HE

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
Thomas Paine

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored !- Aldous Huxley
- Absurdist
- Ex-Muslim
- offline
Re: Understanding Classical Liberalism ?
Reply #1 - August 25, 2012, 02:40 PM

Quote
It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to say that this doctrine is meant to apply only to human beings in the maturity of their faculties. We are not speaking of children, or of young persons below the age which the law may fix as that of manhood or womanhood. Those who are still in a state to require being taken care of by others, must be protected against their own actions as well as against external injury. For the same reason, we may leave out of consideration those backward states of society in which the race itself may be considered as in its nonage. The early difficulties in the way of spontaneous progress are so great, that there is seldom any choice of means for overcoming them; and a ruler full of the spirit of improvement is warranted in the use of any expedients that will attain an end, perhaps otherwise unattainable. Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement, and the means justified by actually effecting that end. Liberty, as a principle, has no application to any state of things anterior to the time when mankind have become capable of being improved by free and equal discussion. Until then, there is nothing for them but implicit obedience to an Akbar or a Charlemagne, if they are so fortunate as to find one. But as soon as mankind have attained the capacity of being guided to their own improvement by conviction or persuasion (a period long since reached in all nations with whom we need here concern ourselves), compulsion, either in the direct form or in that of pains and penalties for non-compliance, is no longer admissible as a means to their own good, and justifiable only for the security of others.

On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill

Liberalism is a Western-centric, racist philosophy that espouses "benign dictatorship" for anyone its adherents deem "uncivilized".
- Absurdist
- Ex-Muslim
- offline
Re: Understanding Classical Liberalism ?
Reply #2 - August 25, 2012, 03:08 PM

Also, what the guy says in the video is a huge stretch. Liberalism wasn't "co-opted" by socialists; Liberals themselves realized the need to reform their political platform when faced with reality.

Quote
Under Gladstone, the Liberals reformed education, disestablished the Church of Ireland (with the Irish Church Act 1869), and introduced the secret ballot for local and parliamentary elections. Following Gladstone, and after a period of Conservative domination, the Liberals returned with full strength in the general election of 1906, aided by working class voters worried about food prices. After that historic victory, the Liberal Party shifted from its classical liberalism and laid the groundwork for the future British welfare state, establishing various forms of health insurance, unemployment insurance, and pensions for elderly workers.[40] This new kind of liberalism would sweep over much of the world in the 20th century.

Wikipedia
- hypocrucifier
- Ending the tyranny of nonsense
- Pub Regular
- The emancipation of TRUTH from perceptions
- offline
Re: Understanding Classical Liberalism ?
Reply #3 - August 25, 2012, 06:46 PM

Quote from: Abood on August 25, 2012, 02:40 PM
On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill

Liberalism is a Western-centric, racist philosophy that espouses "benign dictatorship" for anyone its adherents deem "uncivilized".

yes! sir! It appears that way. It's annoying that politics has to rear its ugly head everywhere and no one seems to be immune to it.
I sometimes wonder whether we will have true liberalism at all, people seem to be hard wired for tribalism,their freedom and thoughts are necessarily limited by the dictates of the group[tribe].

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
Thomas Paine

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored !- Aldous Huxley
1« Previous thread | Next thread »