
Arnold Kling’s deeply insightful book, The Three Languages of Politics lays out the different lenses that liberals, conservatives, and libertarians use to understand the world. Liberals see the world as a struggle between the oppressors and the oppressed and side with the oppressed. Conservatives see the world as a struggle between barbarism and civilization and side with civilization. Libertarians see the world as a struggle between coercion and freedom and side with freedom. Followers of each ideology struggle to understand the lens of the others. Kling argues that this inability to see the world through the lens of people who disagree with us is why political dialogue is often so bitter and unproductive — we’re talking about different things.
…ut the different lenses that liberals, conservatives, and libertarians use to understand the world. Liberals see the world as a struggle between the oppressors and the oppressed and side with the oppressed. Conservatives see the world as a struggle between barbarism and civilization and side with civilization. Libertarians see the world as a struggle between coercion and freedom and side with freedom. Followers of each ideology struggle to understand the lens of the others. Kling argues that this inability to see the world through the lens of people who disagree with us is…