In Defense of the Liberal

What is the nature of the liberal?

The liberal is by nature an empiricist when acquiring knowledge, and a pragmatist when dispensing power. That is, their opinions and intentions develop as a consequence of their experience. The experience of the liberal precedes the opinion of the liberal. In action, the liberal is pragmatic. I mean that the good intended is weighed against the risk of bad consequence. The efforts of the liberal are calculated. In this way we separate the liberal from those who act on principle or from some ideological drive in other guise.

When the liberal is most native, she is completely free from the drives of ideology or the dictates of principle.

What is it that inspires the liberal?

The universal position occupied by the liberal mind, wherein all investment in particular outcome has been resigned in order to enable an unencumbered pursuit of truth, and all attachment to ideological certainty has been forgotten in favor of a willingness to modify one’s position as a consequence of empirical evidence.

The liberal is propelled by their own liberation from the oppression of ideology.

What can clearly be said of the liberal?

The liberal is always under attack, not from some diametrically lateral enemy, but from all sides. Every corner of the political universe must vent its unrequited resentment on the liberal. The liberal is most easily discerned amid the melee by the patient repose exhibited. The liberal listens most carefully to those who are attacking them most vigorously, and never hesitates to applaud the detractor who levels an especially sound criticism.

The liberal is most commonly observed in contemplation or observation, and is rarely observed in action.

What is the desire and expectation of the liberal?

The liberal desires a precise, transparent and honest interpretation of the world as it is. Her good action results from a good interpretation of good information. Regarding expectation, the liberal attempts freedom from it. Whereas desire exists purely in the present, expectation attaches the present to some inaccurately anticipated future.

It is the freedom from false expectation that enables the liberal to authentically desire the truth.

Does the liberal understand liberalism to be an ideal?

The liberal is an idealist, that is, she believes that ideals can be discerned and should guide decision making. The liberal does not believe liberalism itself to be an ideal, but liberalism is the attempt to act from idealism. This is how idealism is distinguished from ideology. Ideology is the rigid adherence to a single ideal at the expense of others.
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Liberalism is an attempt to act from idealism, idealism is dispelled by ideology, ideology is the enemy of liberalism.

What outcome does the liberal seek?

The liberal seeks resolution and in broader terms, progress. Whereas the ideologue seeks to convince others of his position, the liberal is burdened with the arduous task of remaining sincerely and willingly engaged with the other while simultaneously defending the position she has determined to be best. It is this effort, not to persuade with rhetoric or compel with force, but to transparently engage and modify based on sincere empirical analysis that is the signature of the liberal.

The liberal is as open to having their own mind changed, as they are to changing the mind of another.

What dangers threaten the liberal?

As a consequence of the transcendent strength afforded the liberal by the universal position she occupies, the liberal has little to fear. The most common affliction of the liberal is inaction, her contemplation must be effectively punctuated with action, or the liberal will cease to exist entirely. Always there will additionally appear the temptation to abandon the universal position in favor of one or another sweet scented ideological position. There is an almost irresistible urge in every human to abandon the pursuit of truth for the warm embrace of certainty; many a liberal has suffered this ignominious demise.

The liberal is most threatened by the perils of inaction and the temptation of ideological certainty.

What does the liberal reject?

The liberal rejects without hesitation all forms of cynicism. The sallow nihilist is a gray shadow of the liberal, unwilling and unengaged. At the heart of liberalism is the sanguineness spirit, called to invent hope out of despair, compelled in inexorable propulsion to experience the absolute joy of existence.

Though the liberal in the ever hopeful pursuit of truth may run the risk of inaction, or suffer the ignoble surrender to ideology, she is immune to cynicism by virtue of her spirit.