Modern Conservatism is as problematic for lovers of liberty as modern progressivism.
In someways modern conservatism is worse than modern liberalism because so many people these days confuse "conservatism" with the ideals of the US.
Conservatism is a partisan dialectical ideology that traces its roots to Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, Edmund Burke and incorporates the modern logic of Hegel.
This reactionary philosophy holds the US Founders as naive. Conservatives have carefully constructed a partisan thought system in which one plays to the image of liberty without actually advancing liberty.
The US Founders despised Machiavelli and the partisanship of Europe. The partisan conservative has whole-heartedly adopted the very form of discourse the the US Founders sought to shed.
The key to understanding both the US Founders and the American Experiment in Self-Rule is that the Founders had a classical liberal arts education steeped in the classical tradition of Aristotelian logic. They applied classical logic to the question of liberty.
NOTE: Conservatives of 1776 had the same Liberal Arts education which they had applied to the class society of feudalism.
Conservatives of 1776 stood shoulder to shoulder with the British and leveled their musket fire at the US Founders. The claim that the US Founders were Conservatives and the monarchy was left wing progressive is absurd. Conservatives of 1776 opposed the Founders and immediately set in to undermine the American experiment in self rule.
The key to restoring the American Experiment in Self Rule is not conservatism. The key to restoring America is to rediscover the classical liberal ideals of the US founders.
The shrill Hegelian Dialectics of Sean Hannity, Limbaugh and Beck does not lead to a promising future. It leads to greater division.
Yes, it is true that Conservatives wave flags and play to the image of the US Founders. But when one looks beyond this thin facade one finds the underlying structure of Conservatism (ie, Machiavelli, Hobbes,. Burke and all) is not only incapable of restoring liberty. Conservatism, as it was envisioned by the reactionaries of 1776, is apt to undermine the American Experiment in Self Rule and return America to serfdom.
Those seeking to restore liberty must learn to stand against both the Left and Right, for the liberty envisioned by the Founders is not a partisan ideology and one cannot restore this beautiful vision with partisan bickering.
Modern Conservatism will lead us down as dark a road as Modern Liberalism. The Left/Right split did not come from the US Founders. It came from the parliaments of Europe. Both sides of this negative partisan divide lead to dark ends. We are foolish to seek our restoration on either of these paths.
2 comments:
It is the entitlement culture that is the problem. Also our family structure has been weaken. The role of religion in our culture has declined so much
Chris
Owner CEL Financial Services
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Sorry, but your statement is just a moral condemnation of a partisan opponent.
Such moral condemnation do not serve as the basis of sound policy.
Have you ever noticed that the left plays this same poisonous game? They heap moral condemnations on the right to justify their power grabs.
You condemn entitlement.
Guess what? The children of this nation are entitled to its bounty. The big question is the form in which our children receive their inheritance. The left condemns private ownership and want a world where property is owned collectively and benefits distributed politically. The right advocates a class society with our children's inheritance owned by a small ruling elite.
The two sides of the non-debate simply wrangle over who is best at heaping moral condemnation on the other side.
I reject both sides of this non-debate because policy based on moral condemnation of a partisan opponents is always lacking.
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