Not what you think.

Last night I was in one of my grad school classes and the word “libertarian” came up to describe a liberal attitude and liberal policies concerning language education.  One of my classmates appeared to be confused by the correlation between “liberal” and “libertarian,” and said something to the effect that libertarians are not liberal.  At this point I cringed a little and made a less-than-subtle noise.  This was partly due to the fact that definitions of “liberal” and “conservative” have been so radically altered in the American political landscape, they no longer have any definite meanings.  The little noise I made drew the attention of my classmate, so I simply said “Another discussion for another time.”

My graduate studies are in the field of Curriculum and Instruction, and I’ve learned to be very careful about espousing my political philosophy in the presence of my classmates and instructors.  This last summer I had a professor who was not shy about deriding libertarian ideas and those who support them.  In following semesters I could not help but notice a strong bias in favor of statist ideologies among both the faculty and students.  This bias was not nearly as prevalent in my undergraduate studies in the field of Chemistry.  This is probably because the College of Education is very closely affiliated with the state department of education, and is inextricably tied into ideas of social engineering and “social justice.”  In addition, many of the students are graduates with liberal arts degrees, and many college liberal arts departments pursue an agenda that is in keeping with socialist ideologies.  When studying science or engineering, ideas surrounding politics or social issues are seldom addressed due to their lack of relevance in these disciplines.

My aforementioned classmate equated libertarianism with conservatism.  She told me after class that her father once identified himself as a Republican but later changed to Libertarian out of dissidence with the Republican Party’s alliances with evangelical religious organizations.  It is in part because of the similarities between lip service Republicans give to the ideas of liberty and libertarian ideals that libertarians are often branded “conservative.”  However, libertarianism is more accurately described as classic liberalism,  which should not be confused with the “liberalism” that is discussed in the political discourse of today.

The “liberalism” of today is far from being a liberal ideology.  It emphasizes greater centralized government control over almost every aspect of a citizen’s life.  It emphasizes the government controlling and regulating wealth and status in a fashion not dissimilar to the caste system of feudal Europe.  “Liberalism” as it stands today is responsible for curtailing private property rights, ludicrous taxation of everything under the sun, removing the means for the citizenry to defend themselves, and countless other legislative measures taken “for our own good.”  In the current political climate, “liberalism” equates to a form of coercive government that resembles a benevolent collective dictatorship.  However, regardless of the perceived benevolence of a “liberal” dictatorship, it is far from the true definition of liberal.  Libertarian now describes liberalism in the aftermath of socialists hijacking the word “liberal.”