We might need to be careful to take the long view… rather than lock into the snapshot that represents one moment in time..
Liberal “paternalism” or “noblese oblige”… as it has evolved over a thousand years… represents the process of a culture or society working out the conflicts between it’s structure (that is “classes”, either defined or inherent ) and it’s conscience…
Like most ‘evolutionary processes’, it’s not a smooth line… but rather a syncopated dance of big and little steps – forwards and backwards… and not without an occasional paradigmatic shift. And there’s also that “does man make the times or do the times make the man” question at work, that consistently reminds of us of “who we are”.
It may be presumptive, but I’m hoping those who call themselves ‘liberal’ and those who call themselves ‘conservative’ and the rest of us… all still have a ‘conscience’.
That said, anybody read John Leutze’s new book “Entering North Carolina: Set Your Clocks Back 100 Years” yet?
My suggestion would be that it would be ‘required reading’ before any intelligent discussion of North Carolina politics regardless of one’s politics.
