Bastard liberalism

I wish to initiate a series of posts on the most perverted error holding sway in western society. Excuse the emphatic title I used, but as I hope to show, a ruinous philosophy (I speak of Liberalism) deserves to be referred to in the harshest of terms.

Historically we can consider Mill as its chief initiator. He based the theory on two claims: 1) that the individual is absolute and supreme and has the right to decide anything concerning himself, provided that 2) the individual does not harm another person or people in the process [J.S. Mill, On Liberty]. (However, I'm not so much interested in the history, as I am on its practical impact on modern day thinking and outlook).

I'll consider the first claim in this post. Firstly, it is metaphysically perverse in every possible way, since it establishes man as the ultimate be-all-and-end-all. Any philosophy that does this starts out on a false assumption, with horrible practical results. In divorcing man from his Creator, and relegating the latter as irrelevant, the foundation of reality and of man's true place in this reality is thereby removed.

The diabolical distortion of freedom results from the first claim. The fact of free will, being so essential to man (and rightly so, when considered properly), becomes an end in itself. This means the mere fact of having free will is seen as an end in itself. Since man is seen as ''absolute'' he has the right to exercise that free will in any way he so pleases. And so, the liberalist claims that free will, whenever exercised with reference to himself, is a inviolable ''right'' no matter how it is used (provided such action does not ''harm others'', but as I will show in subsequent posts, this stipulation becomes meaningless in a liberalist framework).

"What involves myself and my individuality is totally up to me! No one sets the rules for me! I decide what I want for myself and that is my right!!" This no doubt sounds familiar in some way, and it is none other than that liberalism which removes any sense of duty to oneself. After all, if one is the be-all-and-end-all of oneself, then one has no duties to oneself independent of what one wants (however evil and stupid and irrational such wants are). Let me kill myself! It's my right. Let me mutilate myself! It's my right. Let me engage in sick fantasies! It's my right. Let me fulfill all my lusts to my heart's content (of course, thereby destroying the dignity of my body, but that's beside the point, for I'm not constrained by any duty)! It's my right......

And so on. It's clear that exulting one's 'right to do what one wants with respect to oneself', far from exulting oneself as an individual, actually degrades and perverts the individual beyond belief. But what else can be expected, when the individual is divorced from the reality that in point of fact, he is not supreme, independent,  with the right to decide all things for himself? It's the dictatorship of the individual, as opposed to the liberating rule of the Creator which is the only way individuals can truly flourish according to their true natures (i.e.: that one is not utterly independent, supreme, etc).