The L Word

I guess "liberal" is sort of a bad word in the US, or so I get the impression. Because it's a party here--and I guess because of Canada's more leftiness in general--I'm not used to thinking of it as something terrible.

But some people dislike liberalism for a different reason (different from "oh those fucking hippies" I mean) -- that is, because liberalism is about changing the world a little at a time, and they believe that never works.

I'm not sure how I feel on the topic... and I don't have a particularly well researched viewpoint here. (And I don't plan on researching one, cause I'm trying to write a novel darn it!) But my first thoughts are... (a) Not sure I know of any examples where radical change did more good than harm--including for the people it was supposed to help. At the very least they've brought about changes that are not really better or worse than in countries where change happened more gradually. (Eg. French revolution versus Britain's path to democracy.)

(b) Radical changes are often brought on by nature, or even hard-to-control things like the economy (almost a force of nature). But the poor and disenfranchised are the ones most vulnerable to those things.

(c) Maybe there's some sort of middle ground between radicalism and the sort of gradual change which is so gradual it's standing still. I'm thinking of the Civil Rights Movement in the US. People would say "Be patient, wait, change doesn't come overnight" so in the beginning there was perhaps too much Waiting. Then people got fed UP of waiting and started pushing the boundaries of Acceptable Protest. But I would still consider the actions people took as "liberal." Maybe... insistent liberalism. Most people weren't trying to overturn the system, they were trying to broaden it to be more inclusive.

So at the moment I'd have to say... liberalism seems like the only realistic, viable alternative to the status quo. It might sometimes be used to serve the status quo, it might be manipulated, it might allow for a zillion loopholes and for there still to be a wide gap between the top and bottom, but I'm not sure there's something better to put in its place.

South Africa is a good example. The end of apartheid hasn't brought a Utopia, there are still inequalities, and problems with how things are run, or who owns what, and there is a lot of criticism over how the transition happened and whether justice was really served. But I don't think you can say things are "worse." Having equal rights on paper is still better than institutionalized inequality.

I don't know... just some percolating thoughts. And now that's 457 words that went into this blog instead of into my book! I'm outta here.