Monday, December 26, 2022

Those ideas are not only usually wrong, but also corrosive of the current social order

From Conservatism in an Era Of Populist Revolt by Bo Winegard.  The subheading is: Right-wing radicals are being punished by voters because they have discarded the foundational principles of conservative philosophy.

Conservatism is skeptical of radical or utopian ideas that require the dramatic transformation of society because those ideas are not only usually wrong, but also corrosive of the current social order. And even when they are correct, they are best realized through incremental change, not revolution.

[snip]

. . .  the conservative worries that disorder presents a perpetual threat to civilization.

I have long used the demand for "fundamental change" or "dramatic reordering" or "remaking" as filters to strain out fanatics and authoritarians.  It is vanishingly rare that even a plurality of a population wants  complete makeover.  Certainly, there is always a long list of problems to be solved and processes to be improved.  But to do those things, you need reliable bedrock assumptions and institutions.  

Those wishing to remake the foundational institutions are inherently acting against the will of the majority and therefore always need to exercise coercion in order to achieve their desired remaking of society.  A remaking which, as Winegard points out, almost always represents a vast wastage of blood and destruction of wealth for no actual gain.

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