On Liberty (Thrift Editions)

Top notch very good well pleased ,

There has been much misplaced talk of the failure of Liberalism over the last decade or so, with the emergence of a rash of populist demagogues and more or less disguised dictators. But a return to the foundational primer of Liberalism provides a timely reminder as to why, of all political philosophies, Liberalism is the only one that deals in terms of what everybody needs; a certain amount of security and a certain amount of autonomy. All other political systems rely on the reification of dubious metaphysical entities such as Spirit, the Nation, the Will of God, the proletariat, and so forth. Only Liberalism pays close attention to the limitation of social power, All other systems exalt power in its negative and most inevitably corrupting form and provide the answers to all social issues in terms of yet more power.This short book sets out the basic questions that any liberal political system must address. Not all liberals would necessarily agree with Mill's detailed recommendations, where provided. As a democratic socialist myself I'm not sure Mill would agree with all my own beliefs about social provision for distribution of wealth. And Mill does not attempt to set out detailed answers for all of the questions he raises. As over a hundred years of liberal practice has shown there are often no ironclad right answers to the nitty gritty questions that real life presents. But the questions and the analyses Mill provides are as fresh and as relevant today as they were in his own time.Those of us who have been blessed with the great good fortune of having been born into liberal societies should wake up and acknowledge how precious our freedoms, are and resist wholeheartedly the relativism that tempts us to think that liberalism is just one system among several, and no better or worse than any other. Liberalism is the the politics of enlightened rationality that takes as its primary motivation the maximisation of the happiness of the many within the framework of the need for the maximisation of the happiness of all. All other systems aim at the maximisation of the happiness for some privileged group to the detriment of the remainder, or don't even regard happiness as a political value to be considered. ~On all rational grounds of measurement liberalism really is the best system.Throughout, Mill as a person comes through as a Victorian hippy, passionately envisaging the flourishing of the individual, unshackled by conformity, within a flourishing society. I think I would have got on rather well with him.This is one of those books that should be taught and actively debated in schools, perhaps ina modernised form.

A valuable insight into philosophy

So much has been lost, ignored, obscured, & censured, of late.It is my firm opinion that John Stuart Mill would be horrified by todays enlightenment societies.This book (essay), although written in a different style to that prevailing today, is nevertheless intelligible to most people.I'm hard-pressed to provide a synopsis other than, perhaps, govern yourselves, but accept the responsibility therein.

Although written in the 19th century this book is strangely prescient when we consider the quasi totalitarian world we now live. If every person read this we !might have a freer society with greater understanding amongst the population at large.

Buy it, read it, it's an important book.

I thought it good to keep a printed version. To the future and beyond.

I haven't read the text yet, but I do not intend to due to my bad experience of buying amazon printed texts previously. The text in these prints is of course readable, and the whole initial text by Mill is likely present, but the presentation is incredibly shabby- inconsistent formatting and use of style, makes it an annoying book to read. And more frustratingly, these minor defects that appear throughout the amazon printed texts could easily be fixed- the company clearly does not care and wants to make a quick buck of popular texts that aren't copyrighted... Furthermore, the cover is a clear ripoff of the penguin classics series- they were clearly trying to fool people into thinking that this product is of that superior publisher.It is truly shocking that such a large company would care to run a dishonest business like this- don't buy this print of the text and don't let them get away with this. There are likely many better versions available anyway.