Saturday, December 5, 2009

Only Liberal While it Suits Them

The Swiss banned minarets, the French banned headscarves, and other countries in Europe are pushing for massive, widespread deportations of Muslims. Europeans love to pretend to be very liberal, but in many ways we are often more liberal than Europeans. I would be shocked if any main-line politician who believes in individual liberties here would vote to ban anything relating to someone's unoffensive self-expression.

The message: people are only liberal while it is convenient for them. What separates a liberal from a conservative fundamentally is that a conservative believes he is probably good enough as he is, while I liberal believes he must constantly challenge himself and his ideas to improve. This is harder than avoiding change.

In Switzerland, they decided that the 4 minarets were already too much, and that they somehow were political statements. They want the right to keep their country insular. It is amazing to me that a country that has never taken a moral or ethical stand on anything from the World Wars to the pillage of African countries by leaders with secret Swiss bank accounts decides that the first time they take a stand it will be to limit the rights and freedoms of others.

Change happens. Deal with it.