Conservatives fail to acknowledge that such virtues not only exist within communal societies. These same values are key to the success communal societies.
I would contend that "conservative values" are even more important in a communal society than a free society.
A communal society, the people are dependent on the overall willingness of others to bear the burdens of the group. When people stop working or become devious in their behavior communal society develops systemic faults and fails as a whole.
Think of this for a moment: If you owned a plantation full of slaves, would you want your slaves to be slothful and dishonest, or would you want your slaves to be hardworking and honest?
If you owned slaves, you would want to instill conservative values in your slaves so that you can maximize your profits allowing you more luxury.
The best way to train slaves is to promote conservative values among the group, without actually giving them freedom or ownership.
The conservative values of hard work and honesty are as important to maintaining a communal society as a free society.
A command and control society fails when people stop taking their commands.
In Feudalism, slavery, corporatism, socialism, and other forms of communal living, the central authorities devise all sorts of tricks (rewards, and punishments) to coerce people into productive behavior.
The unique aspect of a free society is that in a free society, where people own their personal resources, is that large numbers of people develop Conservative values on their own as a matter of their daily struggle to make the most of their personal resources.
Please understand this argument. Conservative values are key to all societies. The unique aspect of a free society is that people in a society where people own their personal resources develop conservative values on their own.
People in a communal society need to be tricked or coerced into doing the hard work needed by the community.
The reason that free societies outperform communal societies is that people develop conservative values naturally.
Communal societies hate this reality.
The enemies of the American Experiment in Self Rule encourage Americans to be slothful in habit and libertine in values.
But this observation is about the nature of the opposition to freedom. This observation is true for anyone who is seeking to overcome an enemy. If you seek to overcome an enemy, you want that enemy to become slothful and libertine in habit, because it makes them vulnerable.
All of this stuff about destroying enemies was known well before the American Experiment in Self Rule was a dream in our Founder's eyes. One need only read Machiavelli and Sun Tsu to learn of the terrible things people are willing to do to gain and hold power.
The Conservative Intellectual Harvey Mansfield lauds Machiavelli as being the heart of Modern Conservatism.
I wish the people who use the word "Conservative" as a synonym for the ideals US Founders would take a moment to really sit down and look at this "Conservative" tradition.
Machiavelli taught the prince that one must appear religious without actually being religious. Machiavelli advocates developing an appearance which is opposite of one's actions.
Modern Conservatism appeared in the mid 1800s along with Modern Liberalism. Both of these partisan ideologies took to heart Machiavellian and Dialectical thinking. In this mode of thought one's appearance must be different from one's actions.
The Machiavellian Conservative uses free market rhetoric to gain power. Once in power, he promotes crony-capitalism to consolidate wealth and gain even more power.
Everyone who is legitimately advocating free market reform under the brand "Conservative" is being treated as a useful idiot by the Machiavellian Conservatives who hold the strings of power.
How many times must I say this? The US Founders were not Conservatives.
The Conservatives of 1776 stood shoulder to shoulder with the British. Just as Conservatives today level disdain at Obama, the Conservatives of 1776 leveled there disdain at the Founders who they saw as an unprincipled rabble.
The Conservative Movement in the 1800 sought a preservation of the social order of the monarchy in the newly formed Republic. Conservatism has never been about expanding freedom, it has always been about maintaining social order.
The Machiavellian Conservative (the Republican Establishment) is as intent on reducing Americans to serfdom as the Progressives on the Left. The Machiavellian Conservative desires a world where the people are essentially slaves to a controlled crony-capitalist order but still hold onto the "conservative values" of hard work and integrity.
Hard work and integrity are good things. Hard work and integrity are necessary for all societies.
However, it is wrong to assume that such values are unique to conservatives, and it is wrong to assume that Conservative Values will restore our nation. The Machiavellian Conservative dreams of a world where the people slave away with the conservative values while a ruling class siphons off the rewards for their personal glory.
To restore America, we need to stand up for liberty. We are foolish to continue this path of assuming that "Conservative" is a synonym of liberty and the ideals of the Founders.
Modern Conservatism is a partisan ideology that appeared in the 1800s alongside Modern Liberalism. Both ideologies are inherently anti-freedom and corrupt to the core. Every time I hear a pundit claim that Conservative Values will save America, I want to scream. Because these values are partisan in nature and antithetical to the values of the Founders and a free society.
Conservative values are a good thing, but Conservative Values alone will not restore freedom. When we are duped into thinking that Conservative Values alone will preserve liberty, the Machiavellian Conservatives in power will simply slip economic shackles on our wrists and turn us into slaves with a strong work ethic ... the most desirable of all slaves.
No comments:
Post a Comment