small "l"

I am annoyed at the hijacking of the word "liberal" by modern usage. Somehow the word, based on the Latin root for "liberty", "freedom" has come to mean - especially in a North American context - "left leaning". I do not like either small "l" nor capital "L" liberals, though I do like the liberals who used to be called Whigs in Ye Olde Englande. According to one website's definiton "the Whig party adhered, at least in theory, to the following principles: they were advocates of personal freedom, maintaining that the king governed at the people's consent and that sovereignty rested, ultimately, with the people"

People who call themselves liberal - and Liberal - today (again, in the North American context) do not seem to share the enthusiasm for the will of the people: to wit - the Liberal government of Canada gets defeated on a succession of confidence motions by a majority of the House of Commons (there to represent "the will of the people"). The government conveniently ignores these motions and stretches out the waiting game until such time when it has bribed and cajoled enough MP's to survive a vote in the House.

But perhaps it could be said that such politcal games would be played by all political parties and had the shoe been on the other foot, the Tories would have employed similar tactics. Quite possible, though I think it's high time we put this to a test.

However, the characteristic that annoys me the most about liberals and Liberals is their propensity for pesimism, sarcasm and analysis to paralysis. A liberal will always search for root causes, will always try to reason and persuade using convoluted legalese, will always see the glass as half empty, will always employ sarcasm and irony instead of a short, realistic appraisal. Some scribe by the name of Peter Scowen (of the Toronto Star - a newspaper I avoid except on Sundays when there's nothing else to read) wrote - with what I percieved to be dripping sarcasm - in this Sunday's edition about things which have been "declared not to be a magic pill" (here's an abbreviated list):

*hypnosis
*the 9/11 commission report
*anti-depressants
*viagra
*iraqi elections

I would venture to say that all of the above have proven to be extremely usueful and in some instances (such as Viagra and anti-depressants) they are indeed a magic pill. In other instances (hypnosis, Iraqi elections) they are a helpful tool and a significant step forward. But it is the habit of the liberal to scoff and chuckle. Very seldom does he/she propose a better alternative - other than searching for yet more root causes and debating the subject at yet greater and more paralysing length. Commissions are established, conclusions often ignored. Fault breathlessly assigned. (and you'd better believe it's always the fault the Americans!)

I wish we could call these people something else than liberals. Use "socialist" or "leftist" or "statist" or even simply "urban intellectual". It would be nice if "liberal" could again mean someone who primarily believes in liberty, justice and honor and not someone who needs a thesaurus to convey simple notions and who always, always thinks that he/she knows best!