h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So when I say I am 'conservative',

When I came across this posting of yours I was rminded of an earlier one


And now, having FAILED to see, or simply refusing to admit, the error and hypocrisy of your ways, you go one step further and call me a small 'c' conservative, the unkindest cut of all.

Somehow I knew you'd see that one.

I had you in mind when I wrote it because I was still reflecting on our other conversation and still trying to resolve a way to express my sense of what being 'conservative' means to me.

That's why I took some pains to explain my definition of conservative as 'cautious reflective wisdom' rather than someone who has a full set of prejudices and predetermined 'opinions' on a wide variety of issues.

I wondered if you'd react and I do appreciate that you did. And I hope the posting has explained my idea of 'conservatism' a little better. It has a small 'c' but with none of the usual baggage one might expect if one was prone to generalisations and stereotypes.

Let me say I too have been looking at some of your recent postings in other threads and am really glad to see a new-found confidence now that you are making an effort to be precise and polite. There is always more satisfaction in being helpful than in being antagonistic.


~jwf~

Well there is time for dilogue. Luckily here in the hypothetical world we have time to get to the true meaning of our points and explain the many ideas that underpin our stances.

Conservatism does mean for me what it means for you, it can also encompass those who hang on to traditional or present ideas at the expense of much neede progress. I gues radiclism can encompass both much needed reform as well as "throwing the baby out with the bath water", "political correctness gone mad", the loony left, etc...

Just shows the how labels can have different meanings and people can see themselves as left on some issues and right on others.

Very confusing.

Hmm, my earlier reply seems to have disappeared into an XML Loading error after I submitted it. And that is real shame. It was brilliant. Honest.

I began by saying how the media (and the mob) have rendered the terms 'left' and 'right' quite meaningless. The trouble with such 'handy' labels is that they are just 'too handy' and too easily they are used to dismiss any real consideration of opposing views. Today these terms are nothing more than the thin edge of the wedge of prejudice.

Then I had offered some historical context and examples of how 'liberal' and 'conservative' are also heavily laden with preconceived notions.

On a roll, I finally ventured to suggest that Mugabi in Zimbabwe is perhaps the greatest arch-conservative of them all. He is still remembered as a 'left-wing freedom fighter' and few would call him a 'right wing conservative'. But his racist policies are designed to return his country to a time before the whites came (but without giving up all the added bonuses of their having been there). Such radically reactionary and protectionist policies based on a racial primacy are similar to Zionism and Nazism.


~jwf~

True, the idea of improving the world has become a left versus right battle not simply because those are the only two paths available but because people have seen that joining a gang is a far easier way of getting enough power to change things. Real individuals who consider each and every subject or issue seperately have a hard time looking credible or surviving under the pressure to be part of either mob.

Bothe sides seem to say agree with us on everything or get lost.

Until your successful like Ken Livingston then you get taken back into the fold.