Liberalism is gentleness

Paternalism is a fool’s errand. The world is full of parents who wish to alter their children’s seemingly suboptimal choices: do this, marry him, don’t talk to her. And it is similarly full of states who want to command their people: make steel, grow wheat, speak Marathi.

Liberalism is an exercise in gentleness. The world should be gentler with its people: their suboptimal choices, their strange preferences. We take as granted, in the modern economy, that there are countless firms. That these firms will experiment with new and inventive ways to organise themselves and use resources, seeing the whole range of possibilities for substitution and innovation.

We take as granted that people have varied, multidimensional preference sets, and that everyone has a different equilibrium. And we love their ability to make choices, and love their different equilibriums, and love their varied preferences, as we love them.

Updated February 8, 2026.