what is a liberal?

'Man has a responsibility to find himself where he is, in his own proper time and place, in the history to which he belongs.' 
---Thomas Merton.

I think this is true. But isn't there a concomitant responsibility to find oneself standing against the times one lives in, to not belong? Doesn't one need time, 'place', history for something that is not of time to emerge? This double image seems to be the root of it: to be named and not to be named; the wild man of the forests, the city-dweller; the northern light that isolates, the southern that enfolds, brings within its own circle of understanding. Protestantism & Catholicism, desert and city, order & chaos, the tree of knowledge..


One finds oneself in the world; one finds oneself lost in the world. 


~~~


Atomism vs holism. Really must get down to reading Gellner. Who am I? What am I? Only God can answer that. (Hannah).


Would you not that things had been different, that you had not been allotted this particular arc of history-or at least not gone along with it all the along (Remains of the Day), instead of side-stepping out of the way, veering off to God knows where? That other song, that hums in you, whose tune you know, but whose words you've forgotten, that image that you who hold within you like a relic, worn down by the hand's devotions?

Summertime approaches, the lost hours of summer widening into stillness, the earth steaming, windows open in the evening, sucking in cool air. Even the black sun's heart grows light, losing its former radiance. 


Appiah: brilliant stylist. 
...What is a liberal?
Answer: a kaffirOnly joking.

Perhaps a question that is not wholly without use or importance given that it offers an opportunity to set out a sort of list of desirable attributes that you aspire to.

Firstly, a liberal is someone who doesn't think too much about what is useful or useless. Uselessness is useful for denting the shallow instrumentality, productivity, and functionality that casts its web over our lives. Russell's 'useless knowledge', for example. But that doesn't mean that she has wanton preferences either. There is a balance between the reasons to value something and the freedom to value it. The old question: does desire come before the good?

Secondly, the liberal doesn't care too much about first or second. Everything can trump something else. Sometimes happiness, sometimes darkness; sometimes utility, sometimes rights. Life is not a system, and we are not just calculating machines. Sen, again: evaluation is not calculation. Doesn't care too much, doesn't think too much. That is not the same as 'doesn't think', but nor is it the same as 'only thinks'.

Nabs, that great follower of Russell, or the follower of the great Russell-which means that he doesn't need to be a follower any more, points me to:

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion

The liberal, is only semi-aware that she is a liberal and doesn't set too much store by such categories. Doesn't rule out conservatism or a whole hotch-potch of ideas. Taste, and see.

A liberal does not simply have liberal ideas but actually attempts to live by them. Can let things go, knows when to bite his tongue, even though it hurts!