Social Cohesion and Aesthetic Expressions : A Liberal Approach and Conservative Critique

The liberal view on culture is mostly pluralist. However, liberals also hold the view that social cohesion is necessary in order to maintain a liberal society. Conservatives too, hold social cohesion as central. Yet, they have a more expansive view of what can be expected of citizens in order to maintain social cohesion. To illustrate the difference between these ideologies, I ask if liberals can accept public intervention into the aesthetic parts of people’s lives. This question presupposes a division of cultural expressions into the aesthetic (having to do with taste) and ethical (normative principles). Liberals maintain a unified front against conservatives. Conservatives see aesthetics as intertwined with national culture and moral, meaning that social cohesion is contingent on aesthetic unity. Liberals reject this perception of intertwined tenets. Instead, liberals require, at most, an allegiance to the social order in order to maintain social cohesion. This leaves aesthetics to be as diverse as they please, with one caveat. Liberals should reject aesthetic expression when they constitute a substantive restriction to others.