It's never as much fun bashing conservatives as it is bashing socialists
(or their mini-me incarnations as social-democrats or
liberals as they are called in the USA
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viva la evolucion!
anonymous
September 14 2007, 06:09:56 UTC
There is an obviously optimal midpoint between stone-stupid conservatism, which resists all change, and a Jacobin clean-sweep revolution, which is very likely to end up somewhere worse than where you started. That alternative is modest, small-scale, evolutionary change. Unfortunately, that sounds really boring compared to the grandiose dreams of libertarians, anarchists, and other net randoms.
Re: viva la evolucion!fareSeptember 14 2007, 21:21:34 UTC
The question is not about evolution or not. Of course, there is to be evolution. And the conservative principle is precisely blind to evolution and averse to it -- it cannot tell in which direction to evolve, it says "no" to any and all evolution. It is utterly useless.
Friedrich Hayek, Bruno Leoni, and after them many libertarian authors have expressely defended common law and stressed the importance of tradition and evolution in the building and refinement of law. Libertarianism fully supports that, as opposed to conservatism that has no principle and supports any kind of power abuse as long as it's by the powers that be. Libertarianism supports evolution, discovering new information, and provides criteria for avoiding conflict and discarding all kinds of obviously bad evolutions, etc.
Re: viva la evolucion!
anonymous
September 16 2007, 07:07:32 UTC
So? I'm not a conservative (except in comparison to Mencius Moldbug's plans to replace the entire sociopolitical system with something he's designing from first principles) so I'm not sure why you are directing your flames at me. In fact, if there are any actual conservatives in the Burke or William Buckley mode in American politics they are almost invisible. What we have instead in the Republican party is a sort of free-floating authoritarianism, with no tradition to appeal to.
Re: viva la evolucion!fareSeptember 19 2007, 08:00:41 UTC
I'm directing my flames at a particular non-argument you used, that brings nothing in any debate, because it's an equal-opportunity non-argument.
Whatever is good in Burke or Buckley is precisely what is not conservative about them: absolute values that do not depend on the particulars of the day. That conservatism and those particular traditions may coincide is purely an accident of the day and place, and not a characteristic of conservatism.
In a country where authoritarianism is free-floating and social-democracy takes the role of tradition, conservatives are free-floating authoritarians and social-democrats. Duh.
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mtraven
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Friedrich Hayek, Bruno Leoni, and after them many libertarian authors have expressely defended common law and stressed the importance of tradition and evolution in the building and refinement of law. Libertarianism fully supports that, as opposed to conservatism that has no principle and supports any kind of power abuse as long as it's by the powers that be. Libertarianism supports evolution, discovering new information, and provides criteria for avoiding conflict and discarding all kinds of obviously bad evolutions, etc.
Reply
Reply
Whatever is good in Burke or Buckley is precisely what is not conservative about them: absolute values that do not depend on the particulars of the day. That conservatism and those particular traditions may coincide is purely an accident of the day and place, and not a characteristic of conservatism.
In a country where authoritarianism is free-floating and social-democracy takes the role of tradition, conservatives are free-floating authoritarians and social-democrats. Duh.
Reply
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