Re: [OT] USA Elections
- Posted by jimcbrown (admin) Nov 04, 2012
- 3027 views
Yeah, sure, all analogies suck , but I think we should all agree on the Orwellian nature of the American political labels of "liberal" and "progressive."
I'm not sure that I could agree on that. (Not saying that the ACLU is liberal, just that there exist nonliberals who believe that the obviously anti-Orwellian stance and activities of the ACLU appear to be liberal.)
I'm just referring to how the word changed back around the 1920's and 1930's. Around then, liberal changed its meaning to refer to a philosophy of government that favored an active government that was much more interested in directing things, which by definition takes away liberty.
Matt
Technically true (increasing control is, by the definition of liberty (freedom from control) something that takes away liberty), but I quibble here: Doesn't this mean that having the DMV regulating drivers licenses is another form of having liberty taken away?
Very few people would support getting rid of the DMV as a way to restore liberty, because of the consequences of doing so: Unqualified drivers would be allowed to take to the road, in control of lethal weapons (automobiles), leading to a greater loss of human life.
I'm certainly no fan of governments that callously suppress liberties left and right for no good reason, but I don't see a liberal government as necessarily doing this (neither do I see a conservative government as necessarily doing this). More regulation may be called for, but like the DMV, there generally are good intentions behind it.
But of course, every government is suspectible to this - and in the US, we have all kinds of separation of powers and checks and balances to help deal with this.
