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WHAT ARE CONSERVATIVES TRYING TO CONSERVE? |
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Written by Dr. Joel Wade
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Friday, 22 February 2008 |
People on the left think of conservatives as stodgy,
bigoted, selfish, mean, uncaring, money-grubbing fat cats trying to slow down
the progressive agenda of the left; people on the right sometimes see
themselves as nothing more than glorified handbrakes, standing athwart history
yelling "STOP!"
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The left is built on the negative and pessimistic ideas of
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and
Karl Marx (1818-1883), who saw human nature as an obstacle to overcome, an evil
illusion created by civilization to keep our glorious potential bound within a
veneer of social niceties (Rousseau), and imprisoned by the scourge of
capitalism (Marx).
They both obviously saw it thus because they were, as Jack
Wheeler might say, "prickly" fellows.
Rousseau had a habit of abandoning his newborn children at the
orphanage, while excoriating the rest of us about the errors in our
child-rearing techniques. While Marx, at the same time that he was drumming
into our brains the evils of greedy capitalism, treated his own servants with
contempt and neglected their payment, while mismanaging his own money (see Paul
Johnson, The Intellectuals).
The philosopher of the noble savage was not noble; the idealistic
author of communism was not someone ideally to commune with.
It is from the French Revolution of course that we get the
terminology of left and right. The left were the future murderous radicals of
the Reign of Terror, too impatient for change to wait for persuasion and reason
to sort things out; the right were those like Thomas Paine whose vision was
along the lines of the American Revolution, building a structure of laws and a
restraint on power to guide their passion for liberty.
The left has continued to follow this historical template
ever since - witness Obama's push for change, and his wife informs us that,
"Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved,
uninformed." The left will make you change... or else.
What about the right?
What is it exactly that we conservatives are trying to conserve?
The entire history of mankind has been the story of conquest
and warfare, from its incredibly violent and cruel beginnings in primitive
tribal life, through the millennia of conquerors, emperors, and kings where the
epitaph "The Great" was a synonym for "killed an unfathomable number of
people."
But we on the right are the bearers of the magnificent
enlightenment discovery that setting human nature free to pursue creative and
productive activities is the miraculous and counter-intuitive path towards
prosperity, peaceful co-existence, and the stabilizing of human nature through self-regulation, and not by
force.
This is quite a leap of faith, since we humans tend to do very,
very stupid things, and to think that billions of us left to our own devices
might actually, in general, do good things is quite a stretch - if you're a
do-gooder wanting to make the world perfect.
While the left looks at human nature as illusory and denies
the reality before them, we see human nature as it is, look to the legend on our map, and find the landmarks and
passageways through greed, envy, emotional and impulsive indulgence,
selfishness, cruelty, violence, and power lust.
We know darned well that the path is imperfect, that the way
through is dangerous and unpredictable, and that we all lose our way at times -
but that is why we are vigilant and alert on our journey toward a better world.
Meanwhile those on the left don't see the dangers of their
road. Their leaders do their best to pile followers on their wacky bus, telling
them in many fancy and manipulative ways to trust them because they are
inspiring and charismatic, and they know the way.
Like Obama, in skillful fortune-teller style, they speak
beautifully, but say nothing specific; so their listeners feel they are being
told a wonderful and inspiring story, though they don't really know where the
story leads.
Their way was mapped out long ago by Rousseau and Marx, and
the feckless passengers on the bus don't see the hundreds of millions of bodies
along the roadside - victims of past inspiring and charismatic Rousseauian and
Marxist leaders plowing their bus through anyone who got in their way.
In the delightful movie, "National Treasure," the story
weaves around the search for "A treasure beyond all imagining," the guide to
which lies invisible and hidden on the back of The Declaration of Independence.
But in the real world, the real truth, the thrilling
reality, is that there is a real treasure.
It is the treasure of mankind's glorious future expanding into a degree of
prosperity and possibilities that we can only barely imagine. A future where we
are able to interact with one another as individuals and groups of individuals
with compassion and understanding, while creating miraculous solutions to
problems nobody has even noticed yet.
And that map is indeed
right there on The Declaration of Independence.
Only it's not on the back, hidden from everyone but some
conspiracy-clue genius with a hair dryer and lemon juice. It's right there on
the front, near the top; almost - but not quite - at the beginning. And you can
see it for yourself in the original at the National Archives, plain as day:
"We hold these truths
to be self evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. -
That to secure these rights Governments are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed..."
That's it.
That is at once the vision and mission of the United States
of America, and in one fragment of a sentence the outline for how it must be
pursued: "...deriving their just powers from the rule of the governed."
We know, now, after two-hundred and thirty-one years of
struggling and arguing and fighting and yelling and screaming and debating and
consistently working to hone this vision and mission; and after two-hundred and
thirty-one years of inspiring the world to join us, that this system works
wonders.
I don't mean that it kinda-sorta works pretty good.
I mean it works wonders.
The prosperity and resilience of our nation does not come
from its great political leadership - which is important for us all to remember
this election season. It comes in spite
of its mediocre and imperfect and
human political leadership. And our founders knew that this would be so.
I am not so naïve as to say that who our leaders are doesn't
matter. But we have to always remember that, whoever they are, they are our servants. The prosperity
and resilience of our nation comes from this vision, this mission, and the
structure of laws embodied in our constitution.
There is no need to introduce some broad, bold new vision of
"change" into our system of government. Our system of government is
the broadest, boldest, most outlandish political brainstorm in all of human history.
We are endowed with an inspiring, effective, and true vision of human nature; we are
blessed with a structure of laws in our constitution that guides our choices
and actions politically; we have a deep free-market economy that makes it
profitable to serve, and in each of our own self-interests to get along and be
civil in spite of any feelings or
impulses we might have to the contrary.
We have become accustomed to opposing the onslaught of our
leftist competitors, thinking that all we have is some dour realism about human
nature with which to fight.
We have been behaving as Rush Limbaugh likes to say, with
half our brain tied behind our back, just to make it fair.
I think that we as conservatives sometimes find ourselves
using less than half the resources we have in our philosophical storehouse. We
argue about markets and defense and cultural values as though these are ancient
stone artifacts that we need to preserve somehow from the onslaught of fresh
new shiny leftist inspiration.
It's time for us to lose that illusion - and it is an
illusion.
It's time that we untie that other half of our brain. There
is no need to make it fair. There is no need to disguise the true passion that
moves us, and there is no need to pretend that all of this for us is simply
logic and reason.
We are the bearers of
a passionate vision. We cannot fight for our vision without understanding
that. While the left has only passion and wishful thinking, we have passion that is integrated with
reason and truth, and a historical
record of miraculous success and unbounded possibility.
This is what Ronald Reagan knew. In all our constant wishing
for a new Reagan to lead the Republican Party as President, we have lost sight
of the fact that it is our passion, our ideas, and the dramatic and magnificent
history of two hundred and thirty one years of pursuing our national treasure
that he reflected.
It is up to us to shine enough light through these
principles that no political leader can escape their reflected light. And that
light is no small flame flickering in the darkness. Look around you. The light
of human liberty is a solar engine of light moving the world toward a future
that Thomas Paine could not have hoped for in his wildest dreams.
Let's stop treating it like some frail votive. We need to
stop pissing and moaning about the flaws of our candidates, and instead
actively hold them to their commitments and remind them of what we expect of
them. Cheer on John McCain when he does well, and nag him when he goes astray.
Call your government servants and remind them of what you expect of them,
often.
We need to recognize the danger to our country and the world
that the left poses and has always posed. We need to shine enough light of
reason and persuasion so that no elected official can escape their duty to
preserve and protect our Constitution and our National Treasure. This is not an
act of curatorship over some ancient relic; this is the ongoing battle for
human liberty, dignity, and civilization.
p.s. You can now get your copy of Mastering
Happiness, and a new e-course on Learning Optimism, at Dr. Wade's products
page... http://www.drjoelwade.com/products.html
p.p.s. To get free concise - and realistic - tips on living a
happier life, sign up at... www.drjoelwade.com
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