A True Liberal

What is a true liberal? It certainly is not what we see on the American left. A true liberal is someone who understands the difficulties of life and who wants to help mitigate these problems as best he can. It is someone who truly cares for his fellow human being, without being preachy. True liberals are in short supply today, and we need more of them.

A true Liberal is someone who works within the system to make society better. Someone who sees that both traditional and progressive viewpoints have elements that are beneficial to society. And sees that the right amount of either might change with the times and situation, and that therefore one should not be intransigent in their viewpoints.

A true Liberal understands that in life, one goes through ups and downs, triumphs and tribulations, sadness, hardship, and things that make them better. Therefore, a Liberal does not discount and dismiss another person. A Liberal believes that everyone can become a better version of themselves, just like he hopes other people would believe that he can become a better version of himself.

A true Liberal in politics understands the necessity for political parties to organize people who have specific ideas and goals. But he also understands that a perpetual state of combat between differing parties or viewpoints is exhausting and destructive to the Soul. A Liberal sees that the suffering, randomness, fragility, and the seeming absurdity that we confront to varying degrees in different modes of life necessitates us to focus on how we can make people come together with a shared belief and purpose to help mitigate these negative realities of the human experience.

Therefore, to truly create meaning, to make life more, and better, than the reality of Sisyphus, we must use politics to craft solutions the entire public can believe in. We must also use politics to make people more aware of the necessity to constantly be making the effort in daily life to improve the human experience and better understand other people’s experience and suffering.

A Liberal in politics, as well as a good person in life, must work to bring values and stories/symbols that get people in a way to be more as one to fight hardships, to as Aeschylus said, “tame the savageness of man, and make gentle the life of this world.”