Bingo. Touched on? that is my central axiom.
It’s cultural. It REALLY IS cultural. And, alas, some cultures don’t thrive or survive - for objective reasons.
I had this hammered home when watching Les Stroud’s series _Beyond_Survival_. It’s a fascinating documentary where “Survivorman” seeks out obscure tribes and observes how how they get by. He often laments that “soon they will die out, and all this culture and history and wisdom will be lost.” I sympathize therewith at one level...but at another, I note that they will be lost _because_ the culture is, objectively, not robust enough to thrive (much less advance). The kicker (for me) came when he joined the local men in fishing: they stood/sat on poles offshore for hours, dangling hooks _without_bait_, hoping to snag a fish; over time they caught enough to barely get by. I’ll be very unpopular for suggesting this...but...well yeah that culture is going to vanish, that’s the objective natural consequence of perpetuating non-viable survival behavior. That’s an extreme example, but the point applies to many other cultures which will, eventually and thru complex interplay, self-destruct.
I’m concluding “conservatism” is the recognition that certain lessons are hard-learned and hard-won at great cost over many generations, that society MUST follow and preserve those behaviors, despite possibly not knowing/remembering why they are in place, precisely because they are so vital to a thriving culture - and that dismissing them casually because they’re inconvenient or momentarily unpopular is a fast-track to cultural collapse, whereby (hopefully) the lessons will be learned again, although again at great cost and time. Obedience to authority is one of many examples.
That was a great defense of your opinion, and is unassailable, IMO.
Everything you wrote is true.