Posted on 03/07/2016 7:53:41 AM PST by GilGil
Under the 2D filter of life, conservatives are united by a common ideology that is supported by reason. But under the Master Persuader filter, conservative is a word created for the purpose of identity persuasion. Nothing more. According to my filter, conservative has no logical or coherent reason for existing. While I assume it once had a noble birth, at this point it is just a hodgepodge of ideas that disagree with Democrats. Some of the individual ideas have merit, but they don’t belong together in the same bag for any reason that is obvious to me.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.dilbert.com ...
17 years here and you write that? Interesting.
For me it’s simple: Limited government, unfettered liberty, fiscal responsibility and fair trade.
You completely missed my point. I know what communism was about.
One of the tenets of conservatism is keeping things like they were. My point is that there has to be more than that otherwise communism would be conservatism at least according to some who wish things were as they were under the Soviet Union.
It’s a start.
Read Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, or Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind.
You are making my point over and over again.
You simply cannot tell me in your own words what conservatism is. You are saying that you are too busy to explain it and to read a bunch of books.
That is what is wrong with most conservatives. They have no idea what it means in simple terms and in order to appear smart and superior they call you stupid and refer you to a bunch of books.
That is why conservatism is failing.
IMO, you can't go far wrong with using John Locke's Second Treatise on Government as a starting point and build from there.
However, if you'd like something pithy, how about:
I like the non-aggression principle as a starting point as well, but don't particulary care for where some libertarians have taken it.
Sounds like a good starting point and is simple enough to understand.
Yada, yada, yada. You need to have more than one thing to say. Read that Sobran article from NR's 30th. Yes, read. Find it online. You won't want to put it down.
Too busy to put it in your own words. Conservatism is going nowhere with that elitist attitude.
...conservatism is not actually an ideology, but a temperament or attitude that is essentially opposed to ideology: hang on to the good from the past; don’t accept the “new” simply because it sounds good, critique it on the basis of the common experience of mankind; allow the peculiarities that have grown up as a result of history to survive if not flourish, rather than imposing “rational” solutions on everything...; accept that life is tragic...You did not seem to like this, but that is what there is. The suggested readings from the Anglo-American strain of conservatism are pointed to by me and others on the thread because if you don't believe my definition, you can find confirmation of it by reading Kirk, Burke, and Acton, not because the definition I gave is insufficient.
Sounds like you are describing common sense.
Not surprising that: what was once considered common sense is not so common, and those who remember what it is tend to be conservatives. In some ways conservatism is to society (or societies) what common sense used to be to individuals.
Respect for family, nation and tradition. Subsidiarity. Understanding history and the contingent nature of institutions but never using this to "deconstruct" or undermine them. Accepting the nature of man. Rejection of grand schemes for remaking society. Individualism moderated by patriotism, reconciling the citizen's interests with the greater good.
From these can be derived opposition to abortion, support for free enterprise, support for a strong military and countless other specifics.
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