Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“Language, like the old common law and other customs, is a decentralized, undesigned, spontaneous institution. It serves humanity well. Nothing is perfect, of course, but no alternative — if one were conceivable — could hold a candle to it. One of the downsides is that people may change how they use handy expressions; more wordy phrases may be needed to replace a ‘corrupted’ one. Here’s one: classical liberal. Liberal, of course, originally related to individual liberty and its conditions and consequences: private property, constraints on government power, and free markets. It still means something like this outside of America. (A few pioneering liberals, such as Gustave de Molinari, thought the free market could produce security better than the state could.) Then ‘progressives’ hijacked the word liberal in America and England.” (10/11/24)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2024/10/tgif-full-versus-shrunken-liberalism.html