Written by: Richard Volzke on April 11, 2014

Jardine explains, in his book Technological Society, that the term liberal was originally associated with one who is free. In contrast, the term conservative was used to define an individual who wanted maintain the status quo.[1] I have always considered myself a conservative, however based on this definition I realize that lean towards being liberal. The book focuses on how liberalism shapes a culture with regards to individual understanding of freedom within a society.  Jardine outlined liberal theologies seen throughout the history of the United States:  classic, reform, and neoclassical liberalism.

Classic liberalism is a system in which no government or group of individuals infringed upon an individual’s rights to worship or imposed any form of class division among groups of people.[2] This type of liberalism sought to achieve its goal by instituting a constitutional government, free-market economy with private property ownership and religious tolerance at the core. This is the system that the United States was founded upon, but unfortunately this idyllic form of society has never fully materialized. Because the country was established by Protestant middle-class Europeans with a distinct belief that hard work leads to monetary success and individual freedom, the classic system was never fully attained.[3]  If we define our freedom by “more work or more stuff”, then we aren’t really free.  Looking at corporate America today, I believe that few workers would define themselves as being free. Instead, most would say the freedom doesn’t come until retirement, if they even get to retire.

Reform liberalism suggests that the government should have more control, but this is a conflict to the capitalist economies that have developed in America and Western Europe.  In the early 19th century, many free market economies were devastated by the collapse of the U.S. and European stock markets. Karl Marx and others believed that a strong central government was the only way for society to achieve equality among all individuals. This led to the development of the Communist political system in the early 1920’s. The economic collapse in Russia, after World War I, allowed the Communist to overthrow the monarchy in Russia and establish a new social order. It is interesting that this form of liberal theology collapsed 60 years after its inception and never achieved its goals. A system that isn’t designed with Christ at the core is at a high risk for the human sin of greed and coveting to corrupt.

Neoclassical liberalism is similar to classic liberalism, but instituted in a different format. “It is based on a thoroughgoing skepticism about moral good.”[4] This system suggests that economic markets are able help people to develop moral character, as it doesn’t judge an individual in any way.  An individual has freedom to choose what’s best for him or her. Unfortunately, neoclassical liberalism has the same weakness as classic liberalism in that the system never achieves fairness across all individuals. A small handful of individuals and powerful corporations tend to influence or dictate norms to the society or culture around them.  Further, this form of liberalism is self seeking.  If each individual, government or company made choices based on what is best for themselves, there would be conflict between people and systems would collapse in disorder.  We don’t need more self-seeking people!  The world needs those who will look around them and seek to help those in need.

The Status Quo isn’t working for today’s culture.  People aren’t truly free and are being hurt by unhealthy norms that we have adopted into our culture. We have yet to find a way that dictates true freedom in society.  We spend countless resources and hours trying to fix things that are broken in our society, yet we need to instead work towards finding a way to provide freedom for individuals in our societies in a manner that doesn’t cause harm.  Jardine’s book claims that it is our inability to morally apply and use technology that has lead us to the current lack of freedom that we see in society today. He further argues that it is only Christianity that can give us the clear vision to morally create and use technology to drive positive progression for the human race.  However, for Christianity to work, it must be transformed back to the original Biblical intent of unconditional love. [5]

For mankind to survive, we must see social and political change at a grassroots level.  We do not know what levels of stress we can place on our environment and societies before they reach breaking points, nor what amount of damage we have done that is irreversible. We see indications that we are quickly headed downward (national debt, taxes, social security, pension funds, healthcare and Medicare, etc.).  There is a general feeling of discontent and unrest as protestors are beginning to speak up, as seen with Occupy Wall Street. “Declines in income and high unemployment are not always followed by unrest. Only when economic trouble is accompanied by other elements of vulnerability is there a high risk of instability. Such factors include wide income-inequality, poor government, low levels of social provision, ethnic tensions and a history of unrest. Of particular importance in sparking unrest in recent times appears to have been an erosion of trust in governments and institutions: a crisis of democracy.”[6]  Unless entire communities and societies turn toward Christ and start living with love for one another as He has called us to do, then the damage and destruction will continue.  Our society will effectively break down.  We can no longer rely solely on technology and advances to solve the world’s problems.  It is time to move into a new era, characterized by love and respect towards humanity and the environment.  In order to do this, we must refocus the world on Christ and begin living in the manner in which God intended when He appointed us to be good stewards of His creation.  I agree with Jardine that true, uncorrupted Christianity is the ideal form of liberalism.

About the Author

Richard Volzke