Description

This article is from the Conservatism FAQ, by Jim Kalb kalb@aya.yale.edu with numerous contributions by others.

Why can't conservatives just accept that people's personal values differ?

Liberals, conservatives and others all recognize limits on the degree
to which differing personal values can be accommodated. One reason
such limits arise is that personal values can be realized only by
establishing particular sorts of relations with other people, and no
society can favor all relationships equally. No society, for example,
can favor equally a woman who primarily wants to have a career and
one who primarily wants to be a mother and homemaker. If public
attitudes presume that it is the man who is primarily responsible for
family support they favor the latter at the expense of the former; if
not, they do the reverse.