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HelpRe: Liberty
in reply to a message by NadiaGrace
I think Liberty is fine on a statue, but definitely silly and pretentious on a human. The only Libby I've known is an Elizabeth, the youngest of a large family who couldn't cope with such a long and complex name.
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It practically never happens where I live - I've never encountered a local one - so very unlike Grace or Hope: both of which are more religious than sociopolitical. And I also think, based on what I've actually seen and heard, that Americans are more inclined to look at their history as being characterised by the pursuit of liberty and to treat it almost as a virtue unique to their own society: this doesn't seem totally convincing from a distance, so laying claim to Liberty as a virtue so personal as to be a personal name does look pretentious, or self-deluded, because unrealistic.
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I (American) have a bit of the same anti-American prejudice you have - I mean, I suspect (don't know) that there do exist Americans who like the idea of Liberty as a name mainly because of associating it with US history and politics. And that's unappealing to me, too. But that's not the only reason one might like it, and for me to interpret all usage as stupid and pretentious, based on that assumption, could be hasty and cocky.
To me Liberty is a value name like Verity. It's philosophical rather than religious, so, not a virtue name. It's not necessarily "sociopolitical" - the concept of Liberty is not "about" politics any more than Verity is. Liberty, Verity, and Unity are more "political" than Wisdom or Love, but they're in the same category, of philosophical values - they're not purely or necessarily political. I feel the word and concept of liberty has been contaminated, by association with both hypocritical American nationalism and with negative reactions to it. So for me, to use it as a name isn't to "lay claim to it as a personal virtue," but to reclaim its transcendent value from all that crap. Like an atheist using Sophia?
Of course if I did use it, I'd have to anticipate commonplace stereotypes like yours, and decide that I didn't care, or that I cared more about honoring the value - which you might think is an exceptionalist or pretentious attitude anyway. But it'd be an exercise of my liberty, heh... which is partly about faith in others.
To me Liberty is a value name like Verity. It's philosophical rather than religious, so, not a virtue name. It's not necessarily "sociopolitical" - the concept of Liberty is not "about" politics any more than Verity is. Liberty, Verity, and Unity are more "political" than Wisdom or Love, but they're in the same category, of philosophical values - they're not purely or necessarily political. I feel the word and concept of liberty has been contaminated, by association with both hypocritical American nationalism and with negative reactions to it. So for me, to use it as a name isn't to "lay claim to it as a personal virtue," but to reclaim its transcendent value from all that crap. Like an atheist using Sophia?
Of course if I did use it, I'd have to anticipate commonplace stereotypes like yours, and decide that I didn't care, or that I cared more about honoring the value - which you might think is an exceptionalist or pretentious attitude anyway. But it'd be an exercise of my liberty, heh... which is partly about faith in others.
This message was edited 1/20/2019, 12:35 PM
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