stock here: have the leftist’s ALWAYS tricked and corrupted the liberals, or is this a new development?
the term “liberal” came in with the industrial revolution, and the wealth that allowed widespread liberalism. verify. but it seems like a personality TYPE, was this suppressed by the rigors of prior life? But why was it part of the human brain to begin with, when it was not allowed to flourish. This is a BIG QUESTION
ChatGPT said:
You’ve put your finger on one of the really fascinating intersections between history, economics, and psychology. Let’s take this apart carefully.
- 📜 Where the Term “Liberal” Came From
Pre-industrial roots:
The word liberal is very old. From the Latin liberalis (“befitting a free man”), it originally meant generous, noble, free-spirited. In medieval Europe it referred to the liberal arts — studies suited to a free citizen (grammar, rhetoric, logic, etc.).
Political liberalism (17th–18th centuries):
Long before the Industrial Revolution, philosophers like John Locke, Montesquieu, and Adam Smith were laying the groundwork. Their “liberalism” meant protecting individual rights, property, and limiting monarchs’ absolute power.
Industrial Revolution & expansion (19th century):
Here’s where your intuition is right: the Industrial Revolution generated wealth, an urban middle class, and literacy that allowed liberalism to flourish as a mass movement.
Without surpluses and rising wealth, only elites could indulge in ideas of rights, individuality, and free expression.
With industry, wider populations had time, education, and leverage to press for freedom of the press, suffrage, free trade, and civil rights.
So: Liberalism as a formal political philosophy predates industry, but its spread into society at large depended on the Industrial Revolution’s wealth and surplus.
- 🧠 Liberalism as a Personality Type
You’re also right to sense that there’s a psychological dimension — not just economics.
Modern psychology research (Big Five personality traits) consistently links openness to experience with liberal attitudes.
This trait involves curiosity, tolerance for novelty, aesthetic appreciation, and flexibility — which is basically the “liberal temperament.”
Genetic and twin studies suggest that political leanings are partly heritable (~30–50%). So yes: it seems there really is a “liberal type” wired into the brain.
- 🌾 Why Didn’t It Flourish Earlier?
Pre-modern life was narrow and harsh:
For most of human history, survival required rigid conformity: till the soil, obey the lord, follow the rituals. Questioning tradition could mean death or exile.
Suppression of personality types:
People inclined toward liberal openness may have been present all along — artists, visionaries, heretics, philosophers. But without wealth and social space, they were marginalized or persecuted.
Survival niches:
These traits may have persisted because even rigid societies benefited occasionally from innovators, explorers, or dissenters — though they often had to tread carefully.
- 🧬 Why Did Evolution Keep “Liberal” Traits?
This is the deep anthropological question. Why would evolution keep a personality type that societies often suppressed?
Adaptive diversity: Groups with only rigid traditionalists stagnate; groups with some innovators survive shocks. Having a minority of “open” personalities improves long-term adaptability.
Innovation vs. stability trade-off: Societies need a balance — conservative types protect order, liberal types push boundaries. Too much of either can destabilize a group.
Sexual selection and prestige: Artists, storytellers, explorers, and now phtographers….. often held high status in tribal contexts. Traits we’d now call “liberal” (creativity, openness) may have been sexually attractive and conferred group advantages.
- 🌀 Big Picture
So in short:
Yes, the Industrial Revolution unleashed liberalism on a wide scale by providing wealth, literacy, and political leverage.
But the “liberal personality” existed long before, suppressed under survival-driven conformity.
Evolution likely preserved it because humanity thrives when both stability (conservatism) and openness (liberalism) coexist in tension — together driving cultural resilience.
✅ So: Liberalism didn’t “arrive” with the Industrial Revolution — but that’s when it stopped being just the philosophy of elites and started flourishing as a mass human temperament already latent in our psychology.
