Basement Whatever

Liberalism is an answer to the Wars of Religion. How do we stop people killing each other over their version of the good life? Liberalism answers by building a neutral framework that allows people to pursue their individual versions of the good life.

The key components of that framework are: Individual rights. Each citizen is born with a package of rights at the individual level. People don’t get separate rights based on their beliefs or their political party. Markets. Free markets allow people to purchase what they need to pursue their vision of the good life. The government does not decide this for them. Neutrality. The government doesn’t decide the good life for people. It merely provides the framework.

My understanding: This system is the best one we’ve discovered to allow people with different beliefs to get along with each other. It raises the standard of living, and increases technology development.

The downsides: The liberal framework produces inevitable downsides. Inequality. A framework of markets and individual rights produces inequality, because it rewards certain behaviors. For instance, it rewards mobility – the ability to move where the work is. Over time, this rewards some more than others. Lack of meaning, The goal of liberalism is to allow people to pursue their vision of the good life, and it’s neutral on what that is. This means the liberal framework offers no answers on the afterlife or the purpose of life, and resists any one answer from dominating. Therefore it leaves people alienated unless they find their own meaning. Antiseptic culture. Strong cultures impede liberalism and get in the way of markets and multiple versions of the good life. Liberalism therefore reduces culture to sameness and produces conformity.