liberalism
what a strange collection of ideas! what a collection of strange ideas! government by agreement? consent of the governed? government founded on liberty and equality? Charlemagne would have thought a liberal crazy and probably dangerous. Bismarck never once asked for anyone's consent as he molded Germany out of a thousand duchies, principalities, and tiny kingdoms. George III must've wondered what the colonists drank instead of tea - didn't they know they had governments by his permission? liberalism sprang up in England, as far as I know, as a logical extension of Parliamentarianism, although no Parliamentarian would have recognized it. our founding fathers did not look out their windows and see "my fellow citizens", they saw a rabble, a mob, at best they saw possible soldiers. and they were so liberal they fought a revolution to get a government based on those ideas. liberal government came to be - at least in name, if not in practice - in North America and in South America (thank you, Simon Bolivar), and then spread back into Europe. India picked up the idea and sorta ran with it. hm. I can't think of any other. certainly Russia does not have one, nor China. no, in most places government is won by power, who has the most or best soldiers, or the best guns. conservatism never forgets that we the people, the rabble, the mob, are to be ruled, governed, kept in line. normal American conservatism puts up with the ideas of the vote and "my fellow Americans", but just barely; it longs for the good ole days when the rich were the citizens and we were just grateful. I suspect we are in for a time of unraveling, a time when rights and liberties get undone. I doubt that I'll be around when people began to demand them again, to the point of being willing to fight and die for them then. it'll be interesting for some future historians to see what kind of country emerges when they come back, what rights and liberties mean then. wish our descendants well.
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