[The World on the Page] Liberalism Is Not Freedom First

Edmund Fawcett's "Liberalism" and Others:
The Repeatedly Emphasized Virtue Is Moderation
To Overcome the Crisis of Liberalism,
It Is Urgent to Restore the True Spirit of Freedom
That Prioritizes Tolerance and Generosity
Over the Worship of Individual Freedom and Rights

These days, bookstores are flooded with books dealing with liberalism. Since the publication of Edmund Fawcett's masterpiece Liberalism (Geulhangari) at the end of last year, Francis Fukuyama's Liberalism and Its Discontents (Arte), Helena Rosenblatt's The Lost History of Liberalism (Nike Books), and Josiah Ober's Democracy Before Liberalism (Humanitas) have been released one after another. Michael Sandel's Democracy You Don't Know (Wiseberry), which deals with the "uncomfortable coexistence of capitalism and liberalism," can broadly be included in this category as well.

The background includes the "Trump trauma," caused by the world's most powerful president confusing freedom with recklessness, and President Yoon Suk-yeol, who could be called a "freedom enthusiast." President Yoon mentioned freedom 35 times in his inaugural speech and emphasized freedom 46 times in his recent address to the U.S. Congress, further appealing to the world for an alliance of values based on liberal democracy. However, the term liberalism is extremely ambiguous. Its meaning varies widely?from those who use liberalism as synonymous with extreme individualism or free markets to those who use it to mean a state of liberation from all forms of political and social oppression.

According to Fawcett, liberalism is a political practice that has continued from the 19th to the 21st century, and since its birth in 1830, it has taken on different meanings depending on the situation and context. For example, for Abraham Lincoln, freedom meant the emancipation of slaves; for John Breckinridge of the opposing South, freedom meant allowing each state to manage its own affairs through local autonomy; for Martin Luther King, freedom meant a country free of racial discrimination; and for Donald Trump, freedom meant "what benefits me." Simply repeating the word freedom is not enough; a deep reflection on liberalism is necessary.

Rosenblatt explains that the original meaning of the word "liberal" referred to the civic virtue of thinking and acting toward fellow citizens in a noble and generous manner. In ancient Rome, the opposite of this virtue was selfishness, which was considered an attitude suitable only for slaves. The slave attitude involved thinking and acting solely for oneself, one's own interests, and pleasures, similar to today's individualism.

Freedom was an attitude that respected the fact that I and others are connected beings and was a glue that built human bonds through dedication to the common good. Because we are free, we live in ways that help each other and willingly give and receive generosity. Liberal arts education was about learning and mastering the skills of freedom for a humane life (humanitas), nourishing the noble spirit, and cultivating a selfless mind and public spirit.

In short, a free person was a communitarian who suppressed selfishness based on self-sacrifice, showed tolerance toward others, and devoted themselves to public values. Liberalism based on such noble virtues and leading the realization of social justice is called humanistic liberalism or classical liberalism.

Classical liberalism began to gain influence under the impact of the American Revolution, the French Revolution, industrialization, and capitalism. Enlightenment thinkers advocated liberalism, emphasizing the protection and promotion of individual rights against the arbitrary and oppressive rule of absolute monarchs, as well as the defense of republicanism and constitutional government, and freedoms of thought, speech, and religion, to save a world thrown into chaos by social transformation. Fawcett argues that respect for diversity, recognition of social conflicts, checks on power through laws and institutions, belief in progress, and non-discriminatory respect for all citizens are core ideals of liberalism.

According to Rosenblatt, the liberalism we commonly think of today?one that removes the core principles of freedom such as the suppression of selfishness and the reciprocal giving of generosity, emphasizes laissez-faire, pursues individual rights and interests to the extreme, and advocates for a small government?emerged in the late 20th century United States. It was a product of the Cold War, arising from an overemphasis on individual autonomy in the competition against totalitarian regimes and hegemony of socialist states like Russia, China, and Cuba.

Liberalism exerts great power when harmonized with communitarianism and realized in the form of democracy. European history from 1880 to 1945 vividly demonstrates this. Liberalism that lost the civic virtues of tolerance and sharing descended into racism, anti-Semitism, and aggressive imperialism, and was occupied by fascism in the name of freedom. The result was the Great Depression and World War.

Since 1945, liberalism has gradually spread in the form of welfare states under appropriate democratic control. As care for the socially vulnerable increased, the middle class grew, class conflicts decreased, productivity improved, and economic prosperity followed, enabling liberalism to win the competition against socialism and other systems. Few people dislike a free and prosperous life.

However, the victory of liberalism was short-lived. Neoliberalism, which combined liberalism with extreme market fundamentalism, was a major cause. Until the 2008 global financial crisis brought catastrophe, neoliberalism suppressed government market intervention and neglected aid for the socially vulnerable, causing inequality and disparity. According to New Search for Liberalism and Democracy (Kyung Hee University Publishing Culture Institute), "As distribution worsened in most countries, the number of people sharing confidence in liberal democracy decreased."

Especially, the younger generation, who have lost hope for the future due to inequality, treat liberalism as an outdated trend and are being tempted by Trump-style illiberal and anti-democratic far-right groups or attracted to Red Guard-like identity politics. Fukuyama says, "The threat from the right today is more immediate." The 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol by far-right populists incited by Trump is a representative example.

The virtue repeatedly emphasized in these books on liberalism is moderation. To overcome the crisis of liberalism, it is urgent to restore the true spirit of freedom that prioritizes tolerance and generosity toward others over the worship of individual freedom and rights.

Liberal democracy is not a system that places freedom above democracy but rather one that places freedom under democratic control. As early as President Lyndon Johnson of the United States pushed liberal policies, he said, "A hungry person, a person without a job, a person who cannot send their child to school, a person defeated by deprivation is not fully free." A society that neglects such people is not a liberal democratic society. This is a phrase to keep in mind when talking about freedom.

Jang Eun-su, Publishing Culture Critic