Pluralism

For centuries, the fields of Europe were bathed in the blood of religious wars. It is a strange thing, to fight and kill for "love", or for a "loving god".

Exhaustion from years of war finally birthed a spirit of tolerance; "liberalism", also known as "modernism", has been our great social experiment to let everyone live their own way, acknowledging the right for each to pursue happiness in their own way.

Humans have diverse natures. Our different temperaments are reflected in everything we do, from the entertainment we most enjoy, to our professions where we contribute to society. We would not fault a plumber for not becoming a policeman; we know that people are different, and that forceful dictates are far more likely to crush a soul than to kindle it.

The great tolerance of liberalism was to establish rights as the fundamental unit for social expectations. Instead of expecting that other people would do all we would like them to, a standard which can only lead to disappointment, rights reframed human interaction into a model of consensual interaction. If two individuals consent to an interaction, then their rights therein cannot be violated. It was the social implementation of the silver rule, that great ethical tenet independently discovered by many civilizations.