The Meaning of Liberalism (1938)

https://www.roberthjackson.org/speech-and-writing/the-meaning-of-liberalism/

by johntfella • 3 years ago

40 61 3 years ago

Therefore, it came about that the liberal movement of our time has been cast largely in the mold of economic liberalism which makes its parallelism to the Jacksonian era more obvious, although none the less real, than its parallel to the Jeffersonian liberalism.

This is what happened in Australia. The political party named "The Liberal Party" are conservatives traditionally interested in economic liberalism. Kind of the opposite of the meaning in the US - although this article points to a period in time when the meaning was changing.

gumby• 3 years ago

Australia's use of the term is common around the world. It's the US that's the odd man out.

kome2• 3 years ago

exactly. liberalism is right wing.

but just to confuse the waters, i would say that Americans liberals are indeed right wing, by global standards.

runarberg2• 3 years ago

In my (West Coast US) circles the word ‘Liberal Democrat’ is taken to mean an economically right wing but socially left wing. To my immigrant ears I’ve always taken it to be a right wing term. Democrats also come in the conservative flavor, where they are not only economically right wing but also crony capitalists. Joe Manchin is an example of a conservative democrat while Gavin Newsom is an example of a liberal democrat (Joe Biden is somewhere between them).

In my circles we consider both liberal democrats and conservative democrats to be bad (though conservative democrats are significantly worse; and any kind of republicans are infinitely worse). We also have progressive democrats which we—most of the time—consider good.

leetcodesucks• 3 years ago

Liberalism is dressed up as good in the same way the communist fight against the triad of oppression is dressed up as good.

Both processes openly aim to remove the properties of gender, race and class from the population.

What is left are sexless nationless unprotected atomized individuals at the mercy of the state (controlled by a small group of men who control global finance) - and these people are unmotivated unloved nameless slaves basically

dmwilcox• 3 years ago

I had to keep reminding myself this was written in the 1930s (because of already mentioned confusion around the word "liberal" in the US). But it's a sort of sweet story tracing the liberal ideals of Jefferson and company through to Old Hickery (Jackson) and his rural populism and why the progressive movements can be seen as an outgrowth of that original liberalism. Would read again.

giorgosts2• 3 years ago

"But our acceptance of those property rights is subject to the important qualification that the interests of men and of society come first and that warns us both the misunderstanding and the hostility of conservatives."

That's how socialism is defined, that the interests of society come first.

Avshalom• 3 years ago

that is not how socialism is defined.

gehwartzen• 3 years ago

I mean in most economic theory ultimately the interests align with those who owns the means of production. In capitalism that is the individual (ideally) and in socialism it’s society (ideally) so not sure what’s wrong with GPs definition. The interest of those who own comes first in either case; that seems self evident.

inglor_cz2• 3 years ago

Nope. Socialism is collective ownership of means of production, sorry. Words have meanings.

oceanplexian• 3 years ago

Words do have meanings and “collective ownership of the means of production” is the oldest con in the book. It’s the ownership of the means of production by the State, backed up by violence if you choose not to participate.

You can’t go to the socialist stock market and sell 5 shares of your “ownership”. You can’t transact it. If you don’t like the product, you can’t choose to buy a different one.

improv• 3 years ago

The liberal insists on a bill of rights which will rigidly protect the individual and the minority against encroachments by the government and those elected to exercise power.
But the liberal does not stop here. He insists that the government shall also have and exercise power to see that the rights of the individual and of minorities are not encroached upon by private economic power.

jasfi• 3 years ago

It should be about rights, and defending people's rights. Not sure what happened if I look at my own country, and a few countries I've lived in. There seems to be more of a herd mentality. Stick to the herd if you want to be safe.

thrq• 3 years ago

No matter what they say every group's goal is grabbing the power

The Meaning of Liberalism (1938)

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