Guest guest Posted June 27, 2005 Report Share Posted June 27, 2005 Prabhu, could you provide some references for the definitions? I think perhaps the definitions in the quoted email are a bit over simplified, too. For example, the magazine The Public Interest in its final issue of a forty-year run, has much to say about what is a neoconservative, as it credits itself as one of America's driving forces behind the formation of that category at all. From the magazine: "For the first seven years of its existence, /The Public Interest/ was generally regarded (and regarded itself) as a moderately liberal journal. The editors and most of the contributors, after all, were registered Democrats. Pat Moynihan was in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and in 1968, I was on a Hubert Humphrey campaign task force. It was the election of 1972 that precipitated the first political divisions in our community. Daniel Bell could not bring himself to vote Republican and unenthusiastically endorsed George McGovern. About this time, he also stepped down as co-editor, to be replaced by another old friend-and, as it happened, Democrat-Nathan Glazer. I, on the other hand, repelled by McGovern's views on foreign policy, unenthusiastically endorsed Nixon's reelection. My Republican vote produced little shock waves in the New York intellectual community. It didn't take long-a year or two-for the socialist writer Michael Harrington to come up with the term "neoconservative" to describe a renegade liberal like myself. To the chagrin of some of my friends, I decided to accept that term; there was no point calling myself a liberal when no one else did. And I had to face the fact that voting for Richard Nixon was, in the university world and in the intellectual world generally, the equivalent of a Jew ostentatiously eating pork on Yom Kippur. It was an act of self-excommunication. In fact, some of my critics regarded it as especially heinous for a Jew to abandon the creed of liberalism. For them, neoconservatism was seen as a religious as well as a political heresy." (Kristol, Irving. "Forty Good Years." _The Public Interest_ Spring 2005. Viewed on 27 June 2005. <http://www.thepublicinterest.com/current/article1.html>) I recommend reading the article (and some of the other articles online there) and contrast them with the oversimplified definition of "neoconservative" below. I think how the authors of this journal, which credits itself in part with developing the term and culture with it, is more useful for our purposes in the matter of trying to understand peoples attitudes. Here is the URL for the article: http://www.thepublicinterest.com/current/article1.html, and others like "Neoconservative from the Start" by Nathan Glazer are also worth a read: http://www.thepublicinterest.com/current/article2.html Giri-nayaka (das) BVS (Ljubljana - SLO) wrote: >pamho. agtSP. > >Lets please define terms like liberal, conservative, left, right.... > >This are political terms and I'm not sure if I understand properly what you >are saying, when you are using them. My political knowledge is "zero". > >Here is one definition from web. Did you mean the same, when using those >words? > >ys gnd > >========== >Original Liberal - Also know as classical liberal. Someone who values rights >over traditional values. Someone who espouses personal rights and freedom >over state rights. Advocates a free market, non-government interventionist >approach. Sees government as a necessary evil, whose only function is to >protect people's rights and freedom. See Classical Liberalism for more info. > >Original Conservative - Also known as classical conservative. Someone who >values traditional values over rights. Someone who espouses traditional >personal rights and freedom over state rights. Advocates a free market, >non-government interventionist approach. Sees government as a necessary >evil, the only function of which is to protect people's rights and freedom. >See Classical Conservatism for more info. > >Liberal, Left Wing - Someone who leans toward state-socialism and the right >of the state to interfere in people's lives. Believes everyone should think, >talk and act just like he does and is willing to use the power of the state >to force people to comply. > >Conservative, Right Wing - Someone who leans toward state-capitalism and the >right of the state to interfere in people's lives. Believes everyone should >think, talk and act just like he does and is willing to use the power of the >state to force people to comply. > >Neo-Liberal - Someone who believes in state-socialism and state-capitalism, >as long as it is the "liberal" type (i.e. he gets credit for it), the right >of the state over the individual, the need for the state to intervene and >control all aspects of a person's life. He thinks your life and property >belong to the state, and a person's only purpose is to serve the state. > >Neo-Conservative - Someone who believes in state-capitalism and >state-socialism, as long as it is the "conservative" type (i.e. he gets >credit for it), the right of the state over the individual, the need for the >state to intervene and control all aspects of a person's life. He thinks >your life and property belong to the state, and a person's only purpose is >to serve the state. > >Liberal versus conservative is a false dichotomy. Both are not mutually >exclusive of one another. The more one embraces either the free market or >the state, the more conservatives/liberals converge on one another. The true >issue that people should be focusing on is freedom versus slavery, personal >rights versus state rights, the free market versus the state interventionist >economy. >============== > >----------------------- >To from this mailing list, send an email to: >Prabhupada.Siddhanta.Study.Group-Owner (AT) pamho (DOT) net > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 27, 2005 Report Share Posted June 27, 2005 liberal adjective 1. a liberal supply of food abundant, copious, ample, plentiful, lavish, profuse, munificent, bountiful, rich, handsome, generous. 2. hosts liberal with their hospitality generous, magnanimous, open-handed, unsparing, unstinting, ungrudging, lavish, munificent, bountiful, bounteous, beneficent, big-hearted, kind-hearted, kind, philanthropic, charitable, altruistic, unselfish. 3. people of liberal ideas who are against discrimination of any kind tolerant, unprejudiced, unbiased, unbigoted, impartial, non-partisan, disinterested, broad-minded, enlightened, catholic, indulgent, permissive. 4. a liberal interpretation of the law broad, loose, flexible, non-restrictive, free, general, non-literal, not strict, not close, inexact, imprecise. 5. liberal in his politics advanced, forward-looking, progressive, reformist, radical, latitudinarian. 6. a liberal education wide-ranging, broad-based, general, humanistic. Antonyms: MISERLY; NARROW-MINDED; CONSERVATIVE; REACTIONARY. ------------------------ Excerpted from Oxford Talking Dictionary 1998 The Learning Company, Inc. . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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