Every time you say you are a liberal, you have to explain what you mean by that. Such diversity of meaning should allow for a big tent--and maybe one day, it did--but today it causes an almost constant need to explain and defend oneself. It all gets too complicated. Somehow, "liberals" need to agree on three or four principles as core an…
Every time you say you are a liberal, you have to explain what you mean by that. Such diversity of meaning should allow for a big tent--and maybe one day, it did--but today it causes an almost constant need to explain and defend oneself. It all gets too complicated. Somehow, "liberals" need to agree on three or four principles as core and tell themselves and the rest of the world that is it period. Quite and illiberal approach? Maybe. But maybe necessary anyway.
I agree. For my part, in the book I try to do that and identify three key liberal values: a commitment to personal freedom, to fairness, and to reciprocity. Granted, those are very high-level and general, but it's a core to build off.
Every time you say you are a liberal, you have to explain what you mean by that. Such diversity of meaning should allow for a big tent--and maybe one day, it did--but today it causes an almost constant need to explain and defend oneself. It all gets too complicated. Somehow, "liberals" need to agree on three or four principles as core and tell themselves and the rest of the world that is it period. Quite and illiberal approach? Maybe. But maybe necessary anyway.
I agree. For my part, in the book I try to do that and identify three key liberal values: a commitment to personal freedom, to fairness, and to reciprocity. Granted, those are very high-level and general, but it's a core to build off.