Often we ask ourselves why liberal ideas aren’t always the most obvious choice for people. They seem logical, reasonable and they make sense when you think about them for a moment. Because they are simple. So how come not everyone realizes this?
Well, the truth is that people don’t really think about problems bigger than their own. And we see that the poorer the country, the lesser the freedom in those countries is. And it makes a lot of sense. People have no obligation to care about politics. And they shouldn’t have one. When you’re preoccupied about how you are going to provide for your family, politics & economics seem irrelevant.
However, nobody can escape politics forever. And when a problem is debated, those people who never thought about these issues, they quickly come up with a solution that they’ve heard at some point in their lives. It’s like when you grow up and start cooking for the first time and remember how your mother used to make those delicious pancakes – you do the same, although when your mother was making them, you never gave much importance to the process. However, you remember and you follow the same steps without questioning the recipe, without trying to find a better one because that’s the one you already know, the one you’ve witnessed so many times.
Although it’s not exactly the same case, you get the idea. Our brains do that all the time. We absorb information, sometimes even unwillingly, and when the moment comes, our brains look through all the memory-drawers and find a solution or an answer.
This is why I believe changing mainstream ideas is useful. The Overton window or the window of ideas tolerated in public discourse currently appears* to be leaning down, expressing less liberty. Making liberal ideas known, educating young people in a liberal tradition can therefore help changing what people hear and perceive as being the obvious.
We did well so far, but there’s so much room for improvement.
*I say appear because these days everything is about perception vs facts. We are freer than we used to be 50 years ago. However, unless people acknowledge this, the general idea would be that we are doing worse.
