To the Editor,
While Daniel Halper's column "What's a neocon?" (Feb. 5) does address the way in which "liberalism" has come to connote different or additional ideologies than its classical definition, he wrongly equates the neoconservatives' drive to spread democracy abroad with traditional liberalism.
Traditional liberalism holds individual freedom as the highest good. And while the neoconservatives within and outside the Bush administration may use the language of liberalism to gain support for their political goals (for example, spreading "freedom" to Iraq), it is uncertain whether their motives are founded on classically "liberal" ideology or a more geopolitical power struggle.
It is true that in the realm of international affairs, liberal thought includes the notion that liberal or democratic states generally are peaceful toward one another, but come into conflict with non-liberal states. The notion of converting a country to democracy or imposing a political system upon a culture, no matter how liberal or open that system might be, however, is fundamentally non-liberal. This inherent contradiction stems from the fact that if freedom is thrust upon a people from an outside force, it loses its validity as a political system in which individuals and society have are free to develop in a self-commanding way. "Freedom" becomes an empty concept.
Truly free individuals are what liberal reformists like John Stuart Mill desired within a democratic framework. However, Mill also feared a "tyranny of the majority" or "tyranny of opinion," in which despite legal protections for individuals' freedom of speech and religion, alternative ways of life would be stamped out by social stigmas. Spreading democracy through military force, without any immediate need to protect against genocide or other forms of violence on a grand scale, is also a type of tyranny, as it seeks to impose a certain way of life that should really be developed by the people who are to live it.
Democracy is, by nature, for, of and by the people. What's more, the neoconservative thrust in the so-called "war on terror" has resulted in serious disregard for Americans' civil liberties and freedoms on the part of our federal government. Thus, I would urge Mr. Halper to reconsider his equating modern neoconservatives with more traditional liberal thinkers.
Sincerely,
Jason Yeager, sophomore
