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Books

Liberalism as a Way of Life by Alexandre Lefebvre

We search for freedom this issue, as Kevin Currie points out the many varieties of liberalism.

“That’s because you’re a liberal!” my self-identified ‘progressive’ colleague said to me with slight contempt. We were talking about the importance of the right to conscience even when it means the right to hold noxious – maybe racist or sexist – views. As a liberal, I loathe sexism and racism just as she does; but equally, as a liberal, I loathe putting moral restrictions on what people may believe or enact in their private lives. Yet to my progressive colleague, these views are antique and liberalism is akin to not taking a stand on much of anything, thus letting individual rights run roughshod over social justice.

She’s not alone.

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