Are you a liberal?
No one is born liberal or for that matter with any particular philosophy. Your outlook towards fellow human beings and society in general is shaped as you live. It is a continuous process. There are course correction along the way. Events, interactions, books can alter someone view. They can solidify the pre-existing notions/belief or can break them all. This is true for all kind of people we classify in today’s age — Liberals, Right Wingers, Leftists etc. The major contributor to one’s socio-political outlook in one’s immediate family, education & work.
Childhood is where first seeds are sown for any prominent outlook. A powerful scene from movie American History X comes to mind, where protagonist tries to remember how it all started — From their dinner table by a comment from his father about his African American teacher. One such small incident can have a significant impact on the cognitive development of an individual. I think if you had an average childhood with a calm home environment where you didn’t have to worry about basics like school, food, friends etc, chances of you being a liberal increases. Since one can’t choose which family to be born into, this in my opinion becomes an unearned privilege.
Next up is Education. School going kids are rarely politically/socially aware to understand the difference in ideologies, unless there is a teacher/friend who is a strong campaigner of any ideology and can influence their thought process. I will call it coincidence.
Under-graduation/College is where one explores the world, gets some understanding of politics/society, interact with people from different background and views, read freely. College is probably the place where one’s socio-political outlook starts taking a definitive shape. But like school, most of us do not make our undergraduate choices ourselves. It is either thrust upon by parents or is an outcome of our performance in a 3–4 hours entrance exam. Again it is luck/coincidence that someone becomes a liberal or a right-winger or a leftist.
So What? If being liberal is an unearned privilege or a mere coincidence or a mix of two, what is the big deal?
The big deal is that because of aforementioned reasons, one person can afford being a liberal while other can’t or isn’t. The big deal is how liberals treat others, specifically on social media. The behaviour which worries me the most is social shaming in other words publicly downgrading another human being just because his/her thoughts/actions aren’t liberal.
There has to be some joy/pleasure/satisfaction/superiority complex associated with this kind of behaviour because more and more liberals are doing that. Isn’t being compassionate a prerequisite to being a liberal? or probably these liberals aren’t liberal enough! That would be a big deal, isn’t it?
