Liberalism: broad and generous

Dear Editor,

I have seen much groveling at Georgia College and State University about “liberalism” and “liberal arts.”

Particularly in response to Jim Lenahan’s letter, I see the confusion of terms. His letter defines what could be meant by a liberal arts education but does not illustrate how that is not what is being taught. He does not, however, define what he means by liberalism.

I assume he is talking vaguely about a political philosophy that espouses welfare-style government economic policies and a high degree of personal and social freedoms that may or may not depart from the traditional Protestant Christian worldview. Mr. Lenahan and many who have written such letters do not illustrate exactly how the school imparts this political philosophy on its students, only that it is opposed to the reality that the implied view would teach.

I would say to these individuals to dig deeper into their terms and learn that liberalism, in its pure form, simply means broad or generous. That liberalism, in Europe and in the US prior to the 1930s, was associated deregulation and what we would today call fiscal conservatism. Perhaps the inability of some of our students to define terms and to use cohesive rhetoric shows that we as a university are failing to truly educate amongst the grounds of a liberal arts education. This, however, would not lead to the nice, neat world of “reality” that Mr. Lenahen seems to be proposing.

Thank you and good day,
C. Derick Varn
Graduate Student, MFA Poetry

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 4 2005. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry