Description
This article is from the Conservatism FAQ, by Jim Kalb kalb@aya.yale.edu with numerous contributions by others.
Why do
conservatives talk as if the sky is about to fall and all good things are in
the past? People have been bemoaning the present for a long time but things
don't seem so bad today.
Conservatives don't predict more disasters than liberals, just
different disasters. Like other people they see both hopeful and
hazardous trends in the current situation. Post-communist societies
display the disastrous social consequences of energetic attempts to
implement post-Enlightenment radicalism. Less energetic attempts,
such as modern American liberalism, do not lead to similar effects as
quickly. Nonetheless, social trends toward breakdown of affiliations
among individuals, centralization of political power in irresponsible
elites, irreconcilable social conflicts, and increasing stupidity,brutality and triviality in daily life suggest that those consequences are coming just the same. Liberalism seems to make up in thoroughness what it lacks in brutality. Why not worry about it?
different disasters. Like other people they see both hopeful and
hazardous trends in the current situation. Post-communist societies
display the disastrous social consequences of energetic attempts to
implement post-Enlightenment radicalism. Less energetic attempts,
such as modern American liberalism, do not lead to similar effects as
quickly. Nonetheless, social trends toward breakdown of affiliations
among individuals, centralization of political power in irresponsible
elites, irreconcilable social conflicts, and increasing stupidity,brutality and triviality in daily life suggest that those consequences are coming just the same. Liberalism seems to make up in thoroughness what it lacks in brutality. Why not worry about it?
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