{"id":2199,"date":"2022-02-26T16:22:24","date_gmt":"2022-02-26T16:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/26\/the-meaning-of-liberal-in-south-africa\/"},"modified":"2022-02-26T16:22:24","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T16:22:24","slug":"the-meaning-of-liberal-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/26\/the-meaning-of-liberal-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"The Meaning of ‘Liberal’ in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Benatar, The Fall of the University of Capetown<\/em> (Politicsweb Publishing, 2021, p. v, emphasis added):<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Whereas in the United States it [the word 'liberal'] is often used as a term of opprobrium by those on the right to refer to those on the (or their!) left, in South Africa it is regularly used as a pejorative term by those on the far left in a way that connotes 'right-winger.' Real [classical] liberals are neither on the far right nor the far left of the political spectrum. They are liberals because they support (individual) liberty. This goes hand in hand with non-racialism, and tolerance of views one dislikes.  Liberalism also requires toleration of practices that are either harmless or which harm only those who consent to them. These liberal ideals tend to be antithetical  to those on the ends of the political spectrum. Indeed, both the right and the left have more in common with one another than either would like to admit.<\/em> It is sometimes difficult to distinguish them.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I call my brand of conservatism American conservatism. I take it to include a sizable admixture of what Benatar calls real and what I call classical liberalism. American conservatism is neither a far right nor a far left position. As I envisage it, American conservatism rejects all of the following: integralism<\/a>, and indeed any system that attempts to impose by state power a substantive conception of the good for man; alternative right race-based white nationalism; libertarianism with its overemphasis on the economic; all forms of socialism and leftism.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have various posts that fill in some of the details. I'll find them later, perhaps.  It's Saturday night and time for a drink.  <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Benatar, The Fall of the University of Capetown (Politicsweb Publishing, 2021, p. v, emphasis added): Whereas in the United States it [the word 'liberal'] is often used as a term of opprobrium by those on the right to refer to those on the (or their!) left, in South Africa it is regularly used as … Continue reading “The Meaning of ‘Liberal’ in South Africa”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-matters","category-social-and-political-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}