Inkwell Institute
Subject: Governance/Political Philosophy/Conservatism
Paper #17
I want to be fair to the conservative movement….I have spent much time explaining and the like on Liberalism and now I want to do the same for the Conservs…..
There has been many arguments in the press, on discussion forums, among political pundits about the ideology of the people…..for this paper I will zero in on conservatives. I am sure that they are feeling left out of the dialogues and God forbid that I have the wrath of the Right come down on me.
So you are a conservative? Which type of conservative would that be? I know, I know….HUH?
Let us step into the “way back” machine…my time machine to the days of high adventure….the Age of Enlightenment and one Edmund Burke, who has be called the Father of Conservatism…..He accepted the liberal ideals of private property and the economics of Adam Smith, but thought that economics should be kept subordinate to the conservative social ethic, that capitalism should be subordinate to the medieval social tradition and that the business class should be subordinate to aristocracy. A short definition but one that explains the movement…..and there are a wealth of variants to conservatism…..we have religious conservatism or Libertarian conservatism or fiscal conservatism and on and on…but those are the most prevalent in these times.
Let us look at some of the doings within the conservative movement…..first of all there are a few common beliefs within the conservative movement…..Tradition, Human Imperfection, Organic Society, Hierarchy and authority and Property…..first of all you will ask what is an organic society, right? Human being are dependent and security seeking creatures that cannot exist outside of the boundaries of a society, that people desperately need to belong and seldom separate themselves from society.
The two most outstanding belief systems within the conservative movement are the “pragmatic” conserv and the Libertarian conserv…..the “pragmatic conserv believes in traditionalism, social duty, moral responsibility, natural order, a ‘middle way’ economics and a qualified welfarism……..to the contrary a Libertarian conserv believes in radicalism, egoism, meritocracy, self-help, economic rights, market order, Laissez faire economics and anti-welfarism……
And then there is the insurgent “New Right”, to which the Christian Right is a piece of the action, is more concerned with the what we shall call authoritarian populism with principles of social order, public morality, law and order and national identity……this type of conservatism seems to be the conserv movement most politicians are trying to project in the US…while it has its good points but by NO means reflects a true conservative way of governance.
That is enough said…..oh Hell….there is NEVER enough said……
Hmmm… I gues the US is very different from normal people… 🙂
we do not agree?
What you refer to as types of conservatism are indeed that, but in UK English that would have NOTHING to do with politics and would simply refer to types of personality or individual attitudes or behaviours.
Conservative (with a capital “C”) is the name of our Tory party and there are indeed shades of that, but that will range from a small minority who would equate to your GOP (but much more “reserved” it their expression of their feelings) to some who are to the left of Obama. In general, the bulk of the party is “Obama-like” from a social point of view, but sooooooo much more realistic than either him and in an entirely different league fiscally from our Labour party, that it gives me some hope for the future, though things are far worse than Labour ever admitted and MUCH of the problem is NOT as a result of the recession, but is now admitted to be (as I have been saying for some time) as a result of years of sheer bad management and irresponsible behaviour by Labour.
An interesting note for you – it seems that in one last apparently spiteful gesture before leaving office, Gordon Brown secretly signed up for a reduction to the Prime Minister’s salary of £45K per year – knowing full well of course by then that it wouldn’t be HIM!
So, it’s not exactly that we don’t agree, but more that it is one of those areas that highlights the differences in our language and cultures.
Brown is such an asshole…what a cheap shot…but I do appreciate it though……
I understand and I was just trying to point out that there are as many differences as there are types……to me some even believe in the classical liberal ideology….but I cannot say that without some a/hole getting all worked up over what is written…you know the types…kinda like our friend LEW……
Yeah, I understand. I’m sure you’re right in the US – we tend to find less of an idealogy in most things – except for those on the hard left who are quite blind to everything except their “class war” – more or less the opposite end of the political spectrum to the hardliners in US I believe.
And when I use ‘pragmatic’ I am talking about the juggling of ideas until they find one that works at the polls and after that ‘pragmatism’ is abandoned…..
Check tomorrow, which I know you will, I have a couple of Israel posts….let me know what you think….as I know you will…I can always count on you to be honest…..how is that for an ego boost?
Hey… thanx… and I always thought I just had a big mouth 😆
Never, my friend……..