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……