It seems to me that one of the differences between classical liberals (called “conservatives” in most of the Anglosphere) and modern liberals is the definition of freedom. Classical liberals like myself still think freedom means freedom from government, while modern liberals think it means freedom from other individuals. The former view calls for a limited government, and the latter for an ever-expanding one as modern liberals discover more and more instances of private behavior that inconveniences them. As Dalrymple observes in a short piece for City Journal, they don’t even talk about the true idea of freedom in Britain any more.
The Skeptical Doctor
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Dalrymple’s Essays
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Dalrymple’s Books
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- The Wheelchair and Other Stories
- Ramses: A Memoir
- Neither Trumpets nor Violins
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- Around the World in the Cinemas of Paris
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- Life at the Bottom
- An Intelligent Person's Guide to Medicine
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- If Symptoms Still Persist
- So Little Done
- If Symptoms Persist
- Monrovia, Mon Amour
- The Wilder Shores of Marx
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- Fool or Physician
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Recent Comments
- David Seri on An Interesting Life
- Lynn Chu on An Interesting Life
- David Seri on In the Road Bloody
- Andrew S on In the Road Bloody
- Iwona Hunter on Thoughts on Representation and the Envy of Wealth
- David Seri on Job Snobs
- Carl Wells on Job Snobs
- Andrew S on The Inescapable Inadequacy of Psychology
- Andrew S on You’ve Been Warned
- Samuel H Anderson on Obedience and Freedom (and Fools and Legislators)
It’s becoming predictable, that each episode of political correctness will make the so called liberals ever more confident, and ever more careless. Like the ‘man of justice’, Robespierre, when you ride the tiger of absolute utopian law, fascism results from the inevitable tyranny of virtue.
The good news is, like a chemical reaction depleting itself of finite reagents, fascism implodes when it runs out of victims and demons.