Thoughts of Utilitarian Classical Liberalism

            After much deliberation and thought, I have come to the conclusion that I am a Liberalist. More specifically, I am a Classical Liberalist with great emphasis on the Utilitarian beliefs of both John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham. Despite their different beliefs of Utilitarianism; my ideology will be a fusion of their core concepts. Also, my opinions of economy based politics, mainly capitalism, are derived from Adam Smith’s laissez faire view of capitalism in Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

            To begin, Classical Liberalism stresses individual freedom, human rationality, natural rights, individual property rights, equality under the law, free markets, and the constitutional limitation of government. These core concepts can be attributed to early liberals such as John Locke, Adam Smith, and Thomas Hobbes. Though their opinions may be vastly different on certain concepts, my ideology adopts the core premise of human rationality, as these early liberalists stressed in the Enlightenment. One belief from the Enlightenment is the separation of church and state. Thinkers of the time were beginning to believe that religious beliefs should have no role in political aspirations. I agree with this concept, religion and politics are so widely convoluted of subjects, they should never be used to justify and rationalize the other. Being a philosophical materialist agnostic, I do not hold a religion to my own, though I do believe that religion plays a very important role in the private life of many individuals and to society. I see religion as a guiding force that drives people into developing their own opinions and morals. This is why like some early liberalists, I do stress the equality of all human beings. Government and society should treat all citizens equally and not embrace such primitive differences such as race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, et cetera. Some might say that government and society should be blind to these differences among us. I disagree; government and society should celebrate these differences, after all, in order for a culture to thrive it must be made up of many different beliefs and opinions so that society as a whole can determine good from bad. Only through this determination will a society truly achieve social and technological progress.

            Limited government is necessary in achieving such progress because it allows the individual to truly be free. Any sane adult may do and act however they please, so as long as they do not harm or deprive others of their liberty . This is the harm principle as proposed by John Stuart Mill, in which he states, “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.” Governments that have too much regulatory power such as Socialism, Communism, Fascism, and Totalitarianism, all view society as a defected entity in need of repair through restraint. Utilitarian Liberalism is different, it views society as a motley of individuals all acting out of self-interest. Though all individuals are not always acting out of self-interest, it can be widely assumed among liberals that in most cases they do. Some who believe that human beings are communal creatures who act to better their fellow man and the living conditions of their society such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in The Manifesto of the Communist Party, do not take into account that in fact, maybe these people attempting to improve their society are doing so at their own benefit. Every sovereign human being on Earth acts in two different manners; the acts to receive pleasure and the acts to avoid pain. As stated by Jeremy Bentham, the original leader of the Utilitarians, “Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do.”