What liberals want: a world of absolute safety, and a world of absolute freedom

In the BBC’s article about the development of the “anti-stab” knife, a doctor is quoted saying that “all products should combine efficiency in their intended purpose with the greatest possible degree of safety.” That dreary, depressing comment captures the liberal regulatory impulse to a “t.” But how is that impulse be reconciled with a very different side of liberalism, its liberatory impulse? See my exchange with Nicholas T.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 18, 2009 01:50 AM | Send