I believe in all the qualities of being a liberal. I keep going

In the voice of ages, George Clooney’s words resound with the fervor of conscience: “I believe in all the qualities of being a liberal. I keep going back to all the great social events in our country's history, starting with the Salem witch trials, where the conservative view was that they're witches and should be burned at the stake, and the liberal view was there's no such thing as witches.” Though spoken in the cadence of our modern tongue, these words carry the timeless struggle between fear and reason, authority and compassion, ignorance and enlightenment. It is the eternal duel within the soul of humankind—between those who cling to darkness for the comfort of certainty, and those who reach toward light, daring to question and to change.

From the earliest days, this conflict has shaped the destiny of nations. Clooney’s reflection draws us to the Salem witch trials, that grim chapter in the infancy of America, where hysteria conquered reason and piety turned to persecution. In that fevered time, neighbors accused neighbors, and the innocent were hanged beneath the banner of righteousness. Yet even then, there were voices—quiet, trembling, but steadfast—who spoke the liberal truth: that no one is a witch, that human reason must triumph over blind fear. Those few, mocked and outcast, bore the flame of progress. Their courage became the seed of a nation that would one day declare freedom of thought and the rule of justice above superstition.

This is what it means to possess the qualities of being a liberal—not in the narrow sense of politics, but in the broader sense of the human spirit. It is to hold faith in the power of understanding, to question the decrees of authority when they violate mercy, to believe that truth is not born of tradition alone but from the ceaseless labor of the mind and heart. The liberal soul is the one that looks upon the condemned and asks, “Are they truly guilty, or merely different?” It is the spirit that whispers against the crowd, “Let us think again.” To be liberal, then, is not to be weak—it is to be brave enough to confront the fears of the age and say, “There is another way.”

History itself bears witness to this pattern. When Galileo lifted his eyes to the stars and declared that the earth moves, the conservative voices of his time condemned him for heresy. Yet truth, though bound, could not be silenced. When abolitionists cried that slavery was a sin against the soul, they too were mocked as dreamers and agitators. When women demanded the right to speak, to vote, to stand as equals among men, they were called unnatural. And yet, in every age, what was once branded heresy became wisdom; what was scorned as rebellion became the cornerstone of progress. Thus, Clooney’s words remind us that to be liberal is to believe not in comfort, but in the hard labor of moral evolution.

But let us not mistake liberalism for indulgence or chaos. True liberalism is not the reckless tearing down of all order—it is the renewal of conscience. It is the discipline of compassion, the courage to see beyond the present to the possible. The liberal heart must be tempered by humility, for it is easy to become as dogmatic as those we oppose. Yet the essence remains: the willingness to question cruelty, to defend the oppressed, and to believe that the human mind is capable of greater light tomorrow than it has known today.

So what lesson, my children of thought, can we draw from this? It is this: that every generation must face its own witch trials. They may not bear the name of sorcery, but they will wear the faces of fear—fear of difference, fear of change, fear of losing power. The task of the liberal soul is to stand firm amid that fear and hold to reason, even when the world mocks and rages. For every age has its flames of judgment, and only courage can quench them.

Therefore, walk wisely in your time. When you hear the cries of condemnation, pause and ask, “Who stands accused? And why?” When the multitude rushes to punish, be the voice that calls for understanding. When the world divides into camps of fury, build the bridge of dialogue. Think freely. Love deeply. Question bravely. These are the virtues of the liberal spirit, the qualities that raise civilization from savagery and turn the darkness of persecution into the dawn of progress.

For in the end, as Clooney reminds us, it is not those who burn that history remembers—it is those who dare to believe that there are no witches, only human beings longing to be seen with compassion, reason, and truth.