… is from page 33 of George Will’s excellent 2019 book, The Conservative Sensibility (footnote deleted):
American politics can be considered a tale of three liberalisms, the first of which, classical liberalism, teaches that the creative arena of human affairs is society, as distinct from government. Government’s proper function is to protect the conditions of life and liberty, primarily for the individual’s private pursuit of happiness.
DBx: Yes! But this additional reality should be kept in mind always: Because the individual in bourgeois society can successfully pursue happiness only by attending to the interests of others – Jeff Bezos got rich by pleasing countless strangers who voluntarily purchased his company’s services – protection of each individual’s ability to best pursue his or her own happiness is simultaneously protection of the conditions under which that pursuit serves the interests of as many others as possible.
