Name: The Cultural Roots of Conservatism › American Greatness
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The Cultural Roots of Conservatism › American Greatness

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Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.An interesting proposition that conservative means what lasts and liberal means what does not last ir is ephemeral. However, another proposition is that conservatives favor individual free choice whereas liberals favor the coerced choices of increased government bureaucracy. In fact, conservative and liberal ideologies have both evolved with civilization and continue to evolve and so both conservative and liberal ideologies are ephemeral.There is something special about the nature of Western Civilization that has emerged from the Judeo-Christian-Islamic (JCI) ethic. Somehow, a great wealth and prosperity has emerged from JCI morals and ethics given the Enlightenment, Industrial, and Information Revolutions. Civilization simply did not prosper as well with the Budda-Confucius-Dao-Veda (BCDV) morals and ethics. Both the Eastern and Western morals and ethics allow people to transcend the anxiety of nihilism, the belief in nothing.Each person in their lives must first of all transcend their inherent anxiety of nihilism before they can feel the pleasure of discovery and prosperity. Most of early civilization was about survival and simply surviving can also transcend nihilism. But with our current wealth and prosperity, simple survival is no longer enough for meaning and purpose. It is then just the pleasure of discovery and prosperity that now drives meaning and purpose and it is essential for moral and ethical beliefs for people to transcend the anxiety of nihilism.Of course, JCI has proven to promote more prosperity and wealth over BCDV as the Enlightenment, Industrial, and Information Revolutions have shown.After reading Kimball’s essay, I’m still not certain of his point. The headline is that it’s about the “cultural roots of conservatism,” (whatever that is.) He says that the opposite of conservatize is not liberal, which is true, but then claims it’s “ephemeral,” a word only the most-educated even know. However, the opposite of “conservative” is actually progressive, a term adopted by Marxists and communists to describe their agenda. As for so-called “conservatism,” it isn’t rooted in Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan, it’s actually rooted in the old Democratic party as it existed prior to Woodrow Wilson as evidenced by the large numbers of former Democrats who switched parties, particularly after 1968 and the rise of progressivism.Mr. Kimball,An excellent article! I always look forward to your essays on American Greatness. That you occasionally require me to dive into the dusty corners of a dictionary is an absolute bonus.I have imagined what it would be like for a young adult living in 1947 (the year that the transistor was invented) to be suddenly transported into the culture of 2020 without warning. There would certainly be amazement at the incredible advancement of technology and its offshoots, but I’m convinced that the cultural changes would be both overwhelming and dismaying to any observer. That is not an argument against scientific, medical and technological change; after all, the world is more well fed, more free of disease and more productive as a measure of effort. The point is that our 1947 visitor would see that the cultural roots that have sustained us have been cut below the ground.&gt;which is why conservatives have always regarded the&gt;degradation of manners as presaging other, more&gt;sinister degradations.They have?&gt;The problem with metaphors is not that they are false&gt;but that they do not tell the whole truth.That’s cute, but hardly a serious objection, a metaphor makes a point, it doesn’t encapsulate the universe.&gt;The attack on permanence comes in many guises.Really, you neglected to make this point, that “conservative” has something to do with permanence, although you’ve been broadly hinting at it from the start.&gt;When Sir Elton John is put on the same level as Bach,&gt;the effect is not cultural equality but cultural insurrection.Outside of it being a possible category error, I have no particular objection to it.But don’t listen to the words, Elton seldom wrote those anyway, they’re just tone poems really.—Conservatism is presumably about conserving, and those who want but do not have what is being conserved, or even who object to what is being conserved, does that make them liberals, no, not really, it’s the term “liberal” which has been hijacked, run into a wall, and burned to a crisp.Thank you, Mr. Kimball! I believe it is very beneficial from time to time to step back from our daily grinding (which politician did/said what!?!?!) and to view things with a little historical/philosophical/cultural PERSPECTIVE – you supply that so well!This is a fantastic, thought-provoking essay. Great references that leave me with some more reading to do. That Tocqueville line in particular… I’m always amazed at the foresight of these great men and how much we can apply historical lessons to our modern day questions.Thank you!

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.An interesting proposition that conservative means what lasts and liberal means what does not last ir is ephemeral. However, another proposition is that conservatives favor individual free choice whereas liberals favor the coerced choices of increased government bureaucracy. In fact, conservative and liberal ideologies have both evolved with civilization and continue to evolve and so both conservative and liberal ideologies are ephemeral.There is something special about the nature of Western Civilization that has emerged from the...

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Roger Kimball

". . . a hotbed of far-right Trumpist nationalism . . . " —Media Matters for America

The Cultural Roots of Conservatism › American Greatness

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