We live in a time where political philosophies are becoming increasingly polarized and where labels such as "alt-right" and "liberal" are used with little care or understanding of either the etymology or the history of these words in English.

Understanding the history of a word - its original meaning as well as the connotations and colourings that have grown around it - enriches our understanding of history itself.

Today we probe into the meaning of the word "liberalism" in an effort to understand both what is good and what is bad about it.

One variant of liberalism, known as "social liberalism" has become synonymous with western democracies, and has become an inflexible ideology in those societies. The malignant aspect of social liberalism in the West derives from its appetite for suppressing individual freedoms in the name of the "greater good". This suppression involves an ever increasing Nanny State interference in our personal lives as well as the imposition of endless restrictions on what we may do or say for fear of offending some special interest group. 

Today we make the claim that "social liberalism" as a method for managing society has reached the end of it's usefulness and in practice has become an intolerable imposition on our right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Related Links

Classical liberalism
Social liberalism
Neoliberalism
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