Conservatism: A definition
Conservatism. To be conservative. To take a conservative approach. Conservative: to take a cautions approach in one's interaction with the world.
To over-simplify, conservatism is the philosophy that taking action outside of traditional or known protocol is more likely to cause personal harm or loss than is, to simply restrain behaviour -- and therefore, outcomes -- to within those that follow protocol and thus avoid more, personal unanticipated, harm, inconvenience, loss. In other words, "I'm happy and comfortable where I am. Your wish to change society, if implemented, has a high probability to cause me harm, inconvenience, loss .... I therefore I oppose your wish to change society, that is, 'the protocols of society's behavior' because that would result in my discomfort, harm, inconvenience, loss ....
Protocols, i.e. "That's the way we do things around here. That means, everybody's got to do it that way, no exceptions."
Conservatism has the structural characteristics of Christianity: It is exclusive (the belief and worship of only one god is allowed, everyone in society must behave the same way), and it is missionary (spread the good word that this is the best way to live). Both, Christianity or Conservatism, are the best and only way to live. It is not necessary that a Christian be a Conservative, or vice versa. These are independent values that can support each other, or not.
If the opposite of Conservative is Progressive, then it is possible to be a Progressive Christian.
Does this make the Progressive's Christianity different from the Christianity of the Conservative? Does this mean a schism as significant as that between Catholicism and Protestantism? With similar social consequences? In the beginning, there was just one Christianity with many sects.
People are becoming alienated from rules and beliefs on which they based their lives. The old gods were failing.
In them, the life force is very closely held, guarded, protected. For them, just staying alive is the purpose of existence. In their hierarchy of needs, "my staying alive" is at the top and is the most basic. Among the other needs are: Power, sex, food, clothing, shelter, safety, education, comfort, Maslow's (physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, self-actualization), freedom, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of money, and so on in no particular order. So, if something were to threaten "life", its protection would supplant the concern for all other needs.
If you use a keystone word and you don't know what it means, what does this mean for what you are trying to say?
To answer Rodney King's "Can't we just all get along?", the answer is "No."
To over-simplify, conservatism is the philosophy that taking action outside of traditional or known protocol is more likely to cause personal harm or loss than is, to simply restrain behaviour -- and therefore, outcomes -- to within those that follow protocol and thus avoid more, personal unanticipated, harm, inconvenience, loss. In other words, "I'm happy and comfortable where I am. Your wish to change society, if implemented, has a high probability to cause me harm, inconvenience, loss .... I therefore I oppose your wish to change society, that is, 'the protocols of society's behavior' because that would result in my discomfort, harm, inconvenience, loss ....
Protocols, i.e. "That's the way we do things around here. That means, everybody's got to do it that way, no exceptions."
Conservatism has the structural characteristics of Christianity: It is exclusive (the belief and worship of only one god is allowed, everyone in society must behave the same way), and it is missionary (spread the good word that this is the best way to live). Both, Christianity or Conservatism, are the best and only way to live. It is not necessary that a Christian be a Conservative, or vice versa. These are independent values that can support each other, or not.
If the opposite of Conservative is Progressive, then it is possible to be a Progressive Christian.
Does this make the Progressive's Christianity different from the Christianity of the Conservative? Does this mean a schism as significant as that between Catholicism and Protestantism? With similar social consequences? In the beginning, there was just one Christianity with many sects.
People are becoming alienated from rules and beliefs on which they based their lives. The old gods were failing.
In them, the life force is very closely held, guarded, protected. For them, just staying alive is the purpose of existence. In their hierarchy of needs, "my staying alive" is at the top and is the most basic. Among the other needs are: Power, sex, food, clothing, shelter, safety, education, comfort, Maslow's (physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, self-actualization), freedom, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of money, and so on in no particular order. So, if something were to threaten "life", its protection would supplant the concern for all other needs.
If you use a keystone word and you don't know what it means, what does this mean for what you are trying to say?
To answer Rodney King's "Can't we just all get along?", the answer is "No."
posted by Godel at 10:28 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home