The truth shall set you free

It is true that the meaning of the word liberal has changed a lot during the last quarter of the century. Especially in Europe, a liberal used to be somebody concerned with political and economic freedom, and more or less rooted in a a generic "western" tradition (read: secularized Christianity). Today, a "liberal" is, at best, a moderate leftist. Worse, the concern for freedom has been replaced by cultural relativism, which of course is very detrimental to freedom itself, because in the long run there is no guiding criterion but sheer political power...which was the logical outcome of Marx's philosophy. So poor Karl had a strange destiny: his social vision utterly failed, while his philosophy was brought to triumph by the wealthiest bourgeoisie in world history. He would probably be disappointed.