[PLUG-TALK] Liberal vs Conservative?

Steve Jorgensen jorgens at coho.net
Fri Mar 29 09:53:09 UTC 2002


My 2 cents on the whole Liberal/Conservative thing...

I am a former "Liberal".  I wish there were more former "Liberals" and 
former "Conservatives" around.

"Liberal" and "Conservative" are each labels for constellations of 
unrelated beliefs that have been lumped together and have a slight tendency 
to be held by the same people in common at a particular time.  The exact 
definitions of "Liberal" and "Conservative" vary over time and can even 
swap places on many issues over 50 to 100 years or so.  For one thing, 
classical conservatism is very strong on personal freedom, but this is now 
more of a Liberal platform with the majority of Conservatives in the 
Christian camp on the side of limiting everyone's behavior to that which is 
sanctioned by a particular interpretation of Christian scripture.

I suppose labels are inevitable, and even the artificial lumping of 
opinions into 2 sides on each issue and each side to its half of the 
political spectrum, but personally, I find the Liberal/Conservative 
division extraordinarily limiting - even with the distinctions of moderate 
vs extreme and fiscal vs social.

On Thursday, March 28, 2002 2:12 PM, Richard Langis 
[SMTP:richard.langis at sun.com] wrote:
> The people on #orlug weren't very helpful, and google turned up a bunch 
of
> mirrored pages that said nothing, so I thought I'd ask this list.
>
> What is the definition of Liberal, and Conservative?  Meant with regards 
to
> viewpoints, and with some examples.
>
> An example of sorts:  Liberals are generally pro-choice, while 
Conservatives
> are generally pro-life.
>
> Any opinions out there?
>
> -R
> --
> s u n  m i c r o s y s t e m s
>
>    ~ Richard Langis Jr. ~
>    richard.langis at sun.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG-talk mailing list
> PLUG-talk at lists.pdxlinux.org
> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-talk




More information about the PLUG-talk mailing list