Lord Acton on Power and Liberty

British historian Lord Acton is most famous for his phrase "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." A lifelong classical liberal, he also wrote that "Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end." Many of the issues he wrestled with are still with us today, in a time of sharp political polarization along with various doubts expressed about the classical liberal project.

Join us for a discussion of this 19th century British historian, his background, life, and works, a quick overview of the major political events of his period, selections of his most famous sayings, and then a sketch of his positions in the various controversies he was involved in. These address freedom of conscience, tolerance, nationalism, ideas of progress, partisan vs conscientious history, and controversies over religious authority. We will end with some questions to probe each other's views on these things.

No prior familiarity with Action's works is required, just a willingness to engage in our discussion.

Questions:
(1) Acton said "great men are almost always bad men", which might be a kind of moral pessimism. But he also thinks there has been significant moral progress in establishing liberty, especially in recognizing the rights of conscience. Do you believe in moral progress, moral pessimism about people in positions of authority, both, or neither? How and why?

(2) Acton upholds a standard of "conscientious" history against "partisan" (or "denominational") history. Is this an attainable standard, or does it just amount to unilateral disarmament in essential fights that are fundamentally partisan?

(3) Acton takes positions on many lasting controversies that we might decide differently today (the US civil war, empire vs nationalism, church authority for example). How do you rate the importance of doctrinal agreement on such issues (with you, or our time) compared to simply addressing them with integrity and arguments? Do you dismiss him if you disagree with his conclusion, or question your own opinion?

GENERAL INFORMATION:
NOTE LOCATION:
245 West Sagebrush Street
Join us at our new meet up location at an organizer's in South Gilbert. At the corner of West Sagebrush and West Lago Blvd in the Lago Estancia neighborhood. Avoid parking on Lago Blvd and notice the fire hydrant at the corner.

We have a potluck for everyone to partake of throughout the evening, so bring some food to share if you wish (this could be anything from a bag of chips to a homemade dish).
Our fundamental principle is to encourage the free expression and exploration of ideas. Therefore, we will never silence controversial views that anyone may have about a topic. For the same reason, we do not tolerate direct personal attacks, which only impede genuine dialogue.

DISCORD SERVER (updated link!):
The group has a Discord server! This gives us all a space to talk about stuff between meetups. Use the following link to join, if you haven't already:
https://discord.gg/FRab8G8j2V