When I think of liberalists and libertarians I usually think of the economic meaning of those ideas, more than the whole political concept. There are so many things that I’m grasping but I still have to comprehend. The history of economic thought makes me read a lot. I’ve read Robert Nozick, Ludwig von Mises from the Austrian School or George Reisman Nobel Laureate and his huge treatise on capitalism, so now I’m worried I could be leaning, or heading towards one side.

Wish I had more time and could read more than I do, but you’ve awaken my curiosity so I’m going to add Hayes to my list just after finishing Friedman. (Which will be this weekend while flying and waiting at airports probably)

As you said your comment is worth a post. And I will be there to read it. That was in fact the intention of mine: there are some “labels” that many people use for their purposes, but there’s a lot of thought behind them, and a lot of humanity and its story behind them. We must not trivialise them and treat them as brands but try to understand them, their reasoning, and use them to be able to think wider, deeper and construct our own thought and our own opinion.

And then share it with others, not to convince or to get votes, as other do, but as to follow the longer than life, harsh but also pleasurable and highly rewarding path to knowledge.

Thanks again to all for your comments. I’m learning a lot with you, and there isn’t anything more internet 2.0 than learning.

Congratulations for your excelent post.

We should be very careful when using the terms liberal and libertarian in English, as usually they have opposite meanings depending at which side of the Atlantic Ocean your are.

The European Liberalism, the liberalism of the old Whigs are the American Libertarians, and aren’t represented by any of the two main parties, that is, the Republicans are not libertarians in the US sense nor liberals in the old continent use of the term.

On the other hand, American Liberals aren’t represented by any significant party in Europe, but the term is equivalent to Democrats in the States.

To clarify, from now on I will use the term liberal in the European sense.

I think that in the US, such party doesn’t exist because the liberalism is in the foundations of its Constitution and its Democracy, imperfect, of course beceause everything that is human it’s in essence imperfect (and the recognition of that is precisely one of the ideas of the liberalism).

About conservatism and liberalism, I strongly recommend the addenda that Hayek incorporated to his book The Constitutions of Liberty, titled “Why I am not a Conservatist” (I’m sorry if doesn’t match with the original because my book it’s in Spanish and this is a translation of a translation. Well, I recommend reading the entire book, but in that particular chapter a description is made of socialists, conservatists and liberals, and explain also why liberals are not in the middle. Just as the test try to capture. In fact, another of his essays, Road to serfdom, is dedicated to “the socialists of all parties”.

Two more things that I think should be clear. One is that being liberal doesn’t mean you don’t have strong moral sentiments and stick to them. That’s not liberalism but relativism.

Another is that being liberal, in the classic way, doesn’t imply a strong believe in the “laissez faire”. Liberals believe that some State is necessary but insist in that should be subject to strict control, because the harm the Government can inflict to a Society is huge.

I’ve found in your post the inspiration I was lacking this week, so I think I will elaborate this on my blog as soon as I find the time if you don’t mind. (Anyway I almost write a post instead of a comment!)

Best regards,
Antonio.

Economic Left/Right: 0.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.36

Probably these numbers fit with my position, but I have several doubts on the methodology they’ve used and the meaning of these scores. Nevertheless it’s an interesting exercise.

One last word: in the States a liberal is a person closer to left-wing opinions (specially regarding issues like abortion, civil rights or homosexuality) , whereas in Europe is associated to Tatcherites (in other words, economic freedom).

We need both true Liberals and true Conservatives. The Neocons that put Bush in the White House have given Conservatives a bad name.