Western History

The philosophy, culture, society, lifestyle, perspective, and attitude of liberalism was discovered and invented 2600 years ago in the Athenian colony of Miletus. The philosophy of liberalism, in its essence, is the epistemology of reason and science, the ethics of individualism and self-interest, the politics of liberty and justice, the aesthetics of romanticism and heroism, and the spirituality of transcendence and triumph.

But from the beginning liberalism was opposed and attacked by its opposite ideology, illiberalism. The ignorant, low, weak, and timid were usually anti-liberal. This intellectual falsity and depravity took three forms: right-wing conservatism, left-wing progressivism, and down-wing nihilism.

The right-wingers tended to believe that the new, liberal era version of "god" was the most important thing in the universe, and that the individual's job was to live for its sake, and to nobly serve it as a kind of personal slave. The left-wingers tended to believe that the new liberal era version of the collective was the most important thing in the universe, and that the individual's job was to live for its sake, and to nobly serve it as a kind of personal slave. The down-wing nihilists tended to believe that nothing was important of meaningful in the universe, and that the individual had no job or purpose in this senseless, trivial, fundamentally-empty universe and life.

However, the up-wing liberals realized that the individual was the most important thing in the universe, and that his job in this new, wonderous, magnificent Liberal Era was to nobly live for his own sake and try to be truly great and happy -- and even try to be a kind of genius, saint, and hero.

Early conservatives could be seen in the mystery cultists of Eleusis. Early progressives could be seen in the military communists of Sparta. Early nihilists were generally highly evil, and thus tended to destroy themselves, and could only be found in various, temporary, scattered pockets. Early liberals could be found everywhere there were rational, free, healthy, wealthy, successful, happy individuals, groups, and nations.

Up-wing liberal Greeks like Aristotle, Epicurus, and Zeno the Stoic, along with up-wing liberal Romans like Cicero, Lucretius, and Horace, radically enhanced Western Society and individual happiness, and caused them to powerfully ascend in almost every way. But right-wing conservatives, with assistance from their mutually-illiberal allies on the left, eventually caused a horrific Dark Age to descend upon the West in the Medieval Era.

However, new liberals emerged during the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Western Civilization became better than ever. But left-wing progressives, with assistance from their mutually-illiberal allies on the right, eventually caused the current ghastly Dark Age to descend upon the West.

Now, up-wing liberals like the Austrian economists, political libertarians, and philosophical Objectivists have prominently emerged over the past half-century. And so ever since about the 1980s, the philosophy, culture, society, lifestyle, perspective, and attitude of liberalism have been rising.