I'm a dumb liberal

[Andrew Fletcher]

I'm a dumb liberal. I need to understand conservatives better. Not policy-- I know that you don't like government regulations and all that.

What I want to know is the history of conservatism. Where did it come from? I want to hear names of intellectuals and political leaders. Start where ever you think is important.

Please, no liberal responses. I want to hear the story of convervatism from conservatives.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Well, I'm a libertarian, so I share some (but not all) philosophy with conservatives, but this is a good start.

I would start with George Washington and Adam Smith (read Theory of Moral Sentiments and then ...Wealth of Nations) and then go from there.

Conservatism is largely the belief in sound economic principles (which implies limited government) coupled with traditional American values (which even further implies, among other things, limited government).

"If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart. If your not a conservative at 40, you have no brain."

-paraphrazed quote i've heard.

[sam h]

The conservative movement in America is young, rising to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s and then really taking off in the 1970s. William F. Buckley is often seen as the major intellectual father of modern American conservativsm, and the presidential candidacy of Barry Goldwater is often seen as the watershed moment when conservative politics entered the mainstream.

"Conservatism" of course draws upon ideas and figures who are much older. This all becomes quite complicated, however, because the label "conservative", like the label "liberal," has meant so many different things in so many different places at so many different times.

The most important ideas propogated by the conservative movement in the States over the last forty years have been (a) a belief in limited government and personal responsibility (b) a belief in a society rooted in traditional family structures and traditional family roles and (c) a belief in the importance of religion in the everyday life of society and (d) anti-communism.

Many self-identifying conservatives, of course, will not endorse all of these positions. Economic conservatives are often especially wary of the social aspects of the modern conservative platform. But that's what the movement has been about.

[BCPVP]

[ QUOTE ]
What I want to know is the history of conservatism. Where did it come from? I want to hear names of intellectuals and political leaders. Start where ever you think is important.

[/ QUOTE ]
Here's a big list of influential books:
http://www.acuf.org/classroom/list.asp

[Darryl_P]

The wikipedia definition looks pretty good to me, although I strongly disagree with the statement under the "Order" heading which reads:

[ QUOTE ]
Order

Conservatives typically limit innovation out of risk aversion. Change is by nature risky; it can potentially disrupt or even ruin the social order, which is the only existing guarantee that conservative values will survive.


[/ QUOTE ]

I would bet big $$$ that this part was written by a liberal who was trying his best to be objective and failing as usual.

Doing something "out of risk aversion" means doing something with negative EV in order to maximize expected utility. Conservatism is positive EV in the eyes of most conservatives so the above quote is both unfair and wrong IMO.

[UATrewqaz]

To me being conservative means:

1. Individual responsibility - this leads to the typical conservative views on crime and welfare

2. A strong belief in absolute morality (usually this comes from religion) - see conservative views on abortion/drugs/gambling

3. Practicality over naive idealism - see conservative beliefs on economics/social engineering, etc.

any time someone cites wikipedia as an essential piece of their argument on this forum or others I usually roll my eyes and read the next post.

[Felix_Nietsche]

So if abortion is legal for a 100 years, then a "liberal" will want abortion to be illegal and a "conservative" would want abortion to be legal.....yeah right.

Conservatives believe in limited govt.
Liberals believe in a more active govt.
*When I was in college, these were the rough defintions agreed upon in a debate with William F. Buckley and some liberal guy in a guest lecturer series that my school sponsored.

The "defintion" of poltical conservatives has been re-written so many times it is ridiculous.

It goes without saying there are disagreements within the conservative movement on where the govt should be involved and where it should butt out.