What is Conservatism to you?

[404.livejournal.com]

I have started on Dr. Alitt's excellent primer on the Conservative Tradition, through The Teaching Company (available @ http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=4812 for those who are interested, it costs money though, but not too much, especially when compared to university level classes), and it got me thinking about what I feel Conservatism as a political philosophy really is. Obviously given from the word that is used: Conservative, which denotes careful planning and rational development, but is that all it is? I am curious in what y'all think it means. Maybe this will spark a conversation that does not break down into name calling, but we shall see.

Comments

[mijan.livejournal.com]

I've come to believe that "conservativism," in the Modern American interpretation, means believing the same thing on Thursday as you did on Tuesday regardless of what happens on Wednesday.

My other thought is that Conservativism is when you support freedom of religion (as long as it's your religion), freedom of family (as long as it's your type of family), freedom from taxes (as long as it's your money), freedom of speech (as long as you agree with it), freedom to ignore science and history (because those two things do not support modern conservative principles), and freedom from logic (because logic is diametrically opposed to most conservative principles).

I would like to believe that "conservative" economics means rational development and careful planning with resources, but in reality, I've only seen it as a tribute to the almighty dollar above everything else. Deregulation and profit-first politics without an eye to the future - THAT is what I've seen of conservative economics. Maybe, once upon a time, it meant "nose to the grindstone." Now, it means "nose to the computer screen while you watch your stock options." There's NO consideration for the labor that drives the economy. There needs to be a balance between entrepreneurship and labor, and that's been killed by conservative economics.

So... what is conservativism to me? Maybe it was supposed to be something different, but in this day and age, all I see is a failed experiment.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

That's because the Goldwater conservatives went away once the Nixon Administration imploded. Present-day American "conservatism" is a competition between reactionaries who believe revolution is a destructive leap from Monday into Wednesday but want to revert society to the way it was a year ago and the Theocons. The Theocons, however, are instead a revolutionary movement of the sort that Ayatollah Khomeini led and the comparison is deliberate. Their ideas are only different from Velayat-i-faqih in that the former is strictly rooted in Muslim rationalism.....

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Noted and agreed.

If, hypothetically, conservativism is about maintaining the status-quo of power dynamics in society and government, our modern theocrat-conservativism is about using religion to induce blind loyalty under the pretense of being somehow ordained by God. There seems to be a mentality in the modern "conservative" movement that religion, patriotism, anti-science, and conservative politics are inseparable, and if you don't buy into the whole package deal, you're "bad." It sounds simplistic, but the most simple, mindless schemes are the ones that work when you want to manipulate people's political loyalties.

Of course, I see the same sort of manipulation amongst certain factions of the so-called "liberals." I've just come to the conclusion at this point that they're all idiots, and the liberals are only slightly less-bad when you look at their overall platforms.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Theoconservatism to me is really an American analogue to the ideas of Khomeini. Except that Khomeini was actually a man of some frugality and morals in comparison to the philandering boy-diddlers that make up so much of the Sex Is Evil crowd. It's not mindless to any real extent. Khomeini's ideas were rather disliked in the 1970s Middle East as the same mindlessness yet in the end the Iranians beat Iraq like a drum despite both superpowers feverishly arming Iraq.

Theconservatism is a Christian attempt of rule by True Believers. The dark irony is that Khomeini's system requires someone to be learned, and since it arose in Iran it also requires some knowledge of both foreign languages and in a fairly rigorous program that requires people to have knowledge beyond elementary principles like how to tie one's shoes.

Theoconservatism, by contrast, is like most such Christian movements anti-egalitarian and rooted in an extremely powerful leader who'd have to represent the movement and adhere to moral probity that no Dommies have had or will have.

I agree that the progressives also suck, but progressives can be negotiated with in good faith. Theocons......never.