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What is Liberalism, a thread:
Because most of you use the word wrong and I hate it
Because most of you use the word wrong and I hate it
Liberalism grew out of the enlightenment period. It was an ideology that was inherently anti monarchist, and largely supported by the growing bourgeoise class. In short, it sees the government as a "necessary evil" that exists to protect inalienable rights
It starts with the state of nature question: Without modern civilization, what did early human societies look like. Most enlightenment thinkers thought it would be brutish and short.
As Hobbes put it, "during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called warre; and such a warre as is of every man against every man"
In that state of nature, people have the "right" to do whatever they want, even if what they want to do is hurt people.
Therefore, the government must act as a sort of higher power to protect certain rights, and disallow others. IE you have a right to life, so the government takes away your right to murder.
As the Declaration of Independence says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
So where does Capitalism come into all of this? Capitalism wasn't its own ideology until very recently with the rise of right libertarianism, it is instead a consequence of liberal thought. The thinking goes, you have the right to yourself, your time, and your energy, therefore
you own the things you make, or all the things you legally buy from someone who made it. This gave right to the right to property, or estate, as lined out in Locke's Two Treatises on Government. That is why liberal democracies are obligated to protect private property.
It should be understood however that capitalism wasn't some unintended consequence of liberalism, in fact, the liberal thinkers all had an interest in maintaining their right to property, as they were typically wealthy property owning people.
Inalienable rights theory was created to justify upholding their "right" to their property. It was the justification for keeping slaves, and is still currently the right to create capitalist power structures that oppress the working class.
