The Rise of Hatred-Misunderstanding The Philosophy of Conservatism

The Rise of Hatred-Misunderstanding The Philosophies of the American Conservatism and Liberalism

In the Commonage, we live in a time when hyper communication along with access to all of the collective knowledge and information of every human being in history. This Revolution in technology education in many ways should have been a way to facilitate understanding of the two opposing philosophies as their doctrines and beliefs could be read and open to everyone. As we all know this did not occur and we live in a world disenfranchised with the establishment of the government and the establishment of the two parties which facilitate the organization of said government. Interestingly there are not calls for a true change of the party system or an actual shift of the status quo; instead entrenchment of the ideological nature of the two parties occured creating a roadblock for action. In this age, arguably the best age of all time to live, never before have so many had access to so much; We find ourselves divided and hating one another. Recent polls have seen feelings of division comparable to the division of the American civil war. This is also occurring at the same time as growing suicide and depression rates and a growing trend of a lack of purpose. (Since I am completely behind with blogger and my only is creating a post with substance so the ever benevolent god of a man Mr. Stewart may bestow on me some semblance of mercy) I believe this is occurring because of a true misunderstanding of the philosophies of left and right, so please join me as we go deep into what it means to be a liberal/conservative in America. (The Actual philosophy of Liberalism and conservatism will be as unbiased as possible but at the end, there will be opinion peace surrounding certain tenants) This will be divided into two posts one focusing on Conservatism and the other liberalism to make things simpler. (this one is part 1)

In begging it is important to recognize the complexities of this subject, and it is important to think of Conservatism and Liberalism NOT as generalized groups of people or policies. To truly understand them you must treat them as Philosophies with vibrant diverse subgroups and values, they are alive and cannot be understood without effort to learn about each respectively. (I will talk more about this later) For the purposes of a high school history blog I will be using several historical events to aid with the understanding of this. On a final introductory note, it helps to see conservatism and liberalism as an ideology tree. With roots, a core value, a central problem and different branches with different perspectives and solutions to said problem. (Picture example below)

Conservatism as stereotyped as being backward and counter to the idea of "progression" and at times viewed as "Anti Compassionate" this leads to many being called heartless, bigots or people who just are stuck in the past who need to evolve. This does not do the philosophy of conservatism justice and serves as a barrier to understanding and compromise. It is important to know what is Conservatism in America. To do that we must start at the roots. The Roots of American conservatism can be divided into three parts (Fight me in comments if you disagree but I can't cover everything) These three parts are assumptions and values that to conservatives are usually considered facts and have almost sacred power. (Conservatism differs from liberalism bc of this value system as well but not enough time to explain maybe cover later) These Sacred values are the Human Nature is naturally bad, A rejection of the Utopian vision (utopian vision in the case would be the possibility of a perfect society.) and an acknowledgment of the terrible Fragility of Civilization especially in the case of democracies. These Roots are an assumption which are necessary to understand core belief of conservatism. The core belief and goal of conservatism is ORDERED LIBERTY. This makes sense when looking at the principle because ordered liberty is an ideal which is focused on Ensuring Freedom with decency and Liberty without license. This philosophy is a complex game of balancing government power and authority with protecting the rights of the people making it a middle path of two extremes of the right in general. Navigating this path through the middle has been a hard one in American history, we've seen the extremes of both the total domination of the individual power in the Gilded Age and in Jeffersons America and the Authoritative government power of Andrew Jackson and Ronald Reagan (Opinion, of course, you can argue over these examples but you get the point) Ordered liberty is the attempt to maintain the delicate balance between these two respectively. The problem facing ordered liberty is the Nature of America itself, an empire of diverse groups of people with individual rights and goals and ideas. The problem is how to keep the necessary bond of Bastion of Freedom together without resorting to force or violation of rights? This question has developed modern conservatism and I believe that this came around during the debate around Federalism of Confederalism and the failures if Unity Collapses which can be seen in the Civil War. How do we define American and identity if we are all different? These questions are answered differently by the 4 main subgroups of the conservative philosophy. These are the Economic, Social, Cultural and National respectively. All are very complex and unique but a basic understanding would be this:

National- The Best way to answer to solve the core problem is through patriotism. For what binds people together more than the love of one's country? We are a nation of distinct peoples races and cultures but we are all American, all protected by the nature of the great experiment of our republic. Only with blood and Military might can we keep these different states united. "Duty Honor and Country" (West point motto) This group historically could be the Imperialists during the 19th century and War hawks in the 18th and 17th centuries respectively, Militant in nature to ensure lasting Peace.

Economic-The best way to answer the problem is through economic means for nothing binds us together more than the idea of the free markets guided by the invisible and with a strong work ethic and a competition to bring forward the excellent within us and inspire the less great to strive for greatness. Every American can be great if they will themselves to do so.  This is greatly influenced of course by Adam Smith and combining portions of Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian beliefs. they dominated the gilded age until the great depression and the economic solution continues to be a powerful force in modern political discussion, interference of the government into the market is a threat to the freedom of all Americans

Social Conservatism- (This is different from cultural conservativism) The best way to solve the problem is too awaken to the fact that we are the Children of God, whether that God be Allah, Yahweh, the holy trinity or Jesus;It matters not what you call God it only matters that we are his people chosen to take on a great destiny never before taken. Religion binds us together and is the fabric which brings us together, can we truly have human rights without them being divinely protected by the Lord? The Social Conservatives are distinct from cultural conservatism because due to the support of religion and the belief that it alone can solve the problem. While it mostly focuses on the Judeo-Christian principles which formed the west it embraces all religions as all have a common belief which can bind America together. This is an interesting facet of conservatism because it is like a wave, it weighs and then crashes down and then weighs again. This can be seen in the Several "Great Awakenings" throughout American history. To their credit you could argue that they did bring times of "Unity" but due to its religious nature, Social Conservatism is difficult to work within a secular nature.

Cultural Conservatism- The Solution is in what we already know, Tradition. tradition binds all Americans as traditions in this nation are largely national and must be protected to keep us united. Our National motto, after all, is "E Pluribus Unum" which means: From Many, One. Cultural conservatism is focused much more on values and traditions which they believe keep the united states united. This is clear in movements such as "Family Values" and the counterforce against the changing of gender and social norms. It is easy to confuse social with cultural but one is inherently religiously orientated while the other is focused on "American values and traditions" which not tied to religion exclusively.


 

(Opinion)
American Conservatism is Unique from other forms of conservatism and has grown and evolved with the US while at the same time not really changing. It has always been trying to go down the middle to ensure ordered liberty and when the times favor one side it shifts to support the other to ensure stability. It is, of course, flawed with the very nature of conservatism going against attempting new things which is a downside but it attempts to make up with this by guaranteeing the stability of the nation and commitment to the republic. It is in many ways the scale and the sword of the nation, in times of jeopardy the sword is raised and in times of peace the scale is used to balance itself. Not everyone agrees with conservatism but I believe most people at the minimum can understand it. Now I am biased because I do lean right but I do believe conservatism is fair because of its protection of the individual and the philosophy which allows for self-improvement and the creation of a collective of radically different individuals united under the concept of fellowship. many times it is difficult because being in such a left area it is very easy to write off the conservative viewpoint as few farmers but as we saw with the last elections; Never make the mistake of ignoring or writing off conservatives and the right because the philosophy itself preaches unity which makes the base very easily united against "enemies". That being said I do not expect California to ever be truly open in discussion with conservatives but I do believe that California was the greatest state in the union do to the doctrines of conservatism. The Gold Rush, the Sun Belt migration, the incentive for business and the economic stimulus following factories build for the second world war in my opinion established California into what it is today. It would be a mistake to forget that.


Thank you to the five of you who actually read to the end!
and Mr. Stewart if you read this...I need those blogger points...
Part two will also hopefully be completed today or tomorrow focused on liberalism.
Also, this was heavily inspired by an excellent book called "A Citizens Guide to American ideology" Highly recommend.