Life in South AfricaOn conservatismWhat is a conservative? A humourless bastard who is only interested in serving his rich pals? A minority-hating neo-nazi? A bible-thumping homophobic preacher? Anyone who hates Bill Clinton? Lyman Tower Sargent Contemporary Political Ideologies: A Comparative Analysis argues that conservatism entails the following aspects:
Sargent classifies conservative into the Radical or New Right, who are strongly anticommunist and focus on issues like family values; the Traditional Conservatives, who are less likely to oppose some governmental regulation of the economy and are more liberal on family values issues; and Neoconservatives, who feel that liberalism lost its way in the 1960s and 1970s, and stress the importance of the free market, but are less concerned about family issues. I started out, as most people do, being supportive of the "ideal world" scenario -- we should "do things" to improve the world we live in. I still belive that -- each person should keep his corner clean. The problem lies in the definition of "we". If we grant to the State the responsibility for providing things -- jobs, houses, whatever -- we remove the ability of the individual to improve his environment. We might give him (1) a house or a job, but we take away the motivation to learn new skills and develop himself as a human being. It must be up to the individual to struggle and find out that he can do things for and by himself. If you build a man a house, he will be happy for a while, but pretty soon he will begin to feel depressed and resentful. But if you teach a man how to build a house, he will be able to build it himself, and will feel happier about having done so. And he will have learnt a new skill, which will give him confidence. What about wages? I agree that wages (in South Africa anyway) are too low. They always are. Ideally, those who feel that there wages are too low should find another job. The problem is that there are no jobs because the ANC government has stuck its nose where it doesn't belong, and created an over-regulated, stifled workplace. People should be allowed to take responsibility for their lives, learn skills from wherever they can and improve themselves. When this happens, eventually those companies that look after their workforce will have an educated and motivated workforce, and those that don't will have an uneducated and unmotivated workforce. The problem with the liberal / politically correct way of looking at the world is that it is fundamentally dishonest. Political correctness seeks to protect "previously disadvantaged" people by making excuses for their poor performance. In fact, what it says is that certain people are inferior and cannot improve themselves, so we must make allowances for them. Conservatism does not make allowances for past injustices, but assumes that (all) people are inherently dishonest, and in doing so treats people equally. Ironic, isn't it? Some will argue that State intervention is necessary to protect people from abuse by conservatives. Certainly some protection is necessary. But nobody ever mentions the abuse of people by trade unions. The sittuation may be different in the US, but in SA trade unions typically call a strike before negotiations start, just to let the employers know that they mean business. What happens then is that the workers lose more money in lost wages (the trade union doesn't compensate them for striking) than they actually gain as a result of the increase! Trade union leaders never strike, fly everywhere first class and spend their ill-gotten loot on Cuban cigars! Who is abusing whom? If you look at it honestly, conservatism makes a lot more sense. The problem has been that conservatives have been unwilling to defend themselves. Conservatives need to become more aggressive in putting their view of the world across, and in pointing out the inconsistencies in liberal doctrine. The problem has been that much of the media seem to favour political correctness, often dishonestly so -- many celebrities have come out in favour of Clinton, which makes perfect business sense: take away sex and you basically take away Hollywood. And another thing: how egalitarian can you really be when you're earning $20 m for 6 months work? Looking at it this way, is it really any wonder that Clinton lied to the US public? He's been lying since day 1! Conservatism means this to me: all people are equal, should be given the same opportunities and the same criticism when they screw up. In order to be truly happy, people need to be in control of their own destiny. The simpler things are, the better they work. Humanity has been grappling with the same problems for centuries: there's no point in reinventing the wheel every 10 years. (1) I'm getting tired of writing "him or her" or "her or him" or some other gender-neutral terms every time I mean a human being, so here's my solution: to most men, the gender they think of when thinking of "the average person" would be male; to most women, that gender would be female. So why not just write the gender which springs to mind. If you're a woman, write "she", and if you're a man, write "he". Mailto: |