CONSERVATISM

… a government big enough to give everything you want is also big enough to take way everything you have. – – Barry Goldwater

Life is a blend of the past, the present, and the future. We remember our earlier years, live in the present, and hope for a good future. This is true not only for individuals but equally for cultures and nations, and for humanity at large. Normally the transition from the past to the yet-to-happen occurs in a smooth sort of way: We go to bed at night in peace and wake up to the same familiar surroundings. But once in a while we wake up and discover that some drastic changes have occurred.

A similar thing happens to societies and nations. In particular, consider the dramatic transformations in government and society that began (symbolically) in July 14, 1789 at the Bastille in Paris: That was the start of what came to be known as the French Revolution. It was not just a case of the old order changing, yielding place to new. It was a complete topsy-turvy turn in the political landscape, including beheading royalty and nobility, and ushering in a bloody Reign of Terror.

Even people who applauded the end inequality, oppression, and injustice were shocked by the speed and severity of the changes and feared that in the cleansing process the proverbial baby would be thrown out with the bath water. This fear led to a mindset and movement that sought preservation of the positive elements of the world and resistance to changes too fast and furious that would uproot a nation’s memory and modes of elements that had maintained its integrity and individuality. Such ideas were articulated by the Irish British politician Edmund Burke who thus initiated the political philosophy which later came to be called Conservatism. The word is derived from conserving in the sense of protecting something from destructive forces.

 Conservatism was thus a reaction to societal and  political  changes, provoked by  a deep desire to hold on to one’s historical and cultural roots. As Alexis de Tocqueville insightfully observed long ago, “men may reach a point where they look upon every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.”

Like all philosophies and religions the conservative philosophy and movement have undergone changes and refinements, been warped and distorted too in many ways. Conservatives have been ridiculed by liberals exactly as liberals have been abused by conservatives. Franklin D. Roosevelt famously compared conservatives to a person with two perfectly healthy legs who is unable to move forward.

Conservatism advocates free-market and property ownership: ironically these were two key features of liberalism when it started. Conservatives take pride in patriotism and wave the flag with greater zest and sing the national anthem more heartily.

Conservatism differs from liberalism in its stance on the involvement of government in coming to the aid the less fortunate. Conservatives don’t see that though all “men are created equal” they are not all endowed with equal intellectual, moral, and physical capacities. Because of this, from a practical as well as moral point of view it would be good for a nation if the full potential of all its citizens were realized, even if it costs much in achieving this. Helping the unfortunate succeed is far better than letting them suffer and struggle, prompting frustration and crime. Many conservatives seem to miss this point.

Conservatives don’t wish to put constraints on incentives to make more money. They venerate capitalism as a system because it enables free and enterprising individuals to make more money and invest in their country. So they are also for lessening the load of taxation on the wealthy on the grounds that the rich will invest more in the country and create more jobs for the people.

Ethical conservatives base their values on sacred texts. These texts inspire them to be kind and charitable and less promiscuous in sexual morality. But it also inspires some to take positions against non-standard sexual leanings and practices. Homophobia is fairly common among extremist religious conservatives: Indeed, the more backward a religion or a religious person is, the more their virulence against gays, lesbians and the like.

Conservatives take their religion more seriously than liberals do. For them religion is not just adhering to rules such as regularly attending places of worship and doing the appropriate number of prayers every day; it also includes taking scriptures literally and not brooking unorthodox interpretations of or comments on their Holy Book. Fundamentalists in all religions who advocate literal readings of the Bible or the Ramayana, the Torah or Holy Qur’an are invariably conservatives. Religious conservatives are blind to the poet William Blake’s line that one may “expect poison from the standing water.”

Religious conservatives are against abortion not only because in the religious framework even an unborn fetus is sacred, but also because they hold that extra-marital pregnancies should not be encouraged by the government through subsidies for abortion. However, the central core of religious teachings, namely love and compassion for the less fortunate, seem to elude a good number of  conservatives when it comes to urging the government to expend more money for social welfare and provide medical assistance for the poor. It would be good if more of them took John R. W. Scott’s advice seriously: “Every Christian (read: religious person) should be both conservative and radical (liberal), preserving the faith and radical (liberal) in applying it.”

Cultural conservatism calls for preserving the culture and heritage of a nation. That is why cultural conservatives tend to resist extraneous forces that tamper with the essence of a nation’s integrity. They appeal more to people who have deep loyalty and devotion to the land of their birth than to more recent immigrants to the country. This leads to some societal problems in the modern world with global migrations of people into nations that allow and/or are porous to immigrants. As a result, conservatives are more prone to xenophobia than liberals.

Contrary to general impression, conservatives are not against all changes. Often they object only to rash and rapid changes which, they fear, will lead to gradual diminution and eventual abandonment of traditional values, religious worldviews, and result in reckless and irresponsible behavior in men-women interactions.

As players in free societies conservatives are important for maintaining and nourishing whatever contributes to the continuity and stability of the fundamental principles shaping nations and cultures. At the same time liberals are needed to change, correct, and ameliorate those same principles whenever and wherever they have outgrown their relevance, utility, and positive effects. Take away the liberals, and society will stagnate in an outmoded and anachronistic static status. Take away the conservatives, and society may morph in ways that would erase all the ancestral glory and greatness that shaped the culture of which its descendants are justly proud and with which they identify themselves philosophically, spiritually, and historically. That is why, by and large, only those who have been voluntarily in a nation for a few generations or who identify themselves fully with their adopted country tend to be cultural conservatives.

Some other topics explored include: Creationism   , Cynicis , Daois, Darwinism, Deism          Theism, Transbiologysm, True-believerism, Universalism, Vedanta, Vitalism,, Truth, Belief, and Realit.           

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