Conservatism at its Finest

I thought that both of the articles on conservatism, The Conservative Principles by Russell Kirk and Conservatism, were both extremely helpful in understanding the position that conservatives take when deal with issues. Both articles talked about how conservatives were greatly against change. Although they aren't against change that will help society, most of their beliefs lie in preserving the old ways on how to do things. The "Conservatism" article said that "conservatives have a clearer understanding of what they oppose than what they favour." I think that this philosophy can apply to many issues that the conservative position is placed in today. They have a "fixed set of ideas" and are hesitant to explore other options. I remember when President Bush wouldn't pass a bill that would allow for more stem cell research, refusing to change his philosophies on the topic even after it has been shown how beneficial stem cell research can be. While this is just one example of conservatism, there are many other decisions made by the government branch that exhibit exactly what the articles are saying.

The articles made the notion of "change in order to conserve." Burke was an advocator of such thinking, making sure that the old ways of running things were kept safe for future generations. He would definitely have been in support of "custom, convention, and continuity." The Ten Conservative Principles article also talked about the principle of keeping everything in order, in harmony. Burke mentioned how chaos will simply lead to the downfall of a society, so it was important that not every man was his own government. Both Kirk and Burke feel conservatism is partially about staying away from violent nature, in order to create a working whole. Small changes that will make everything run smoothly are acceptable in both cases. It is interesting how much conservatives seem to be concerned with making sure there is a lack of chaos. Preserving old traditions seems to be incredibly important, and I agree to an extent that we need to keep some sort of foundation of future generations. But I think that there should be the opportunity to build off of that foundation, maybe in directions we couldn't quite predict, but would still be beneficial for everyone in the end. Being afraid of change doesn't get society anywhere really, you have to accept the direction the people are falling into and turn it into something good. Having the same principles now that were going on such as back in the slave days, well that just wouldn't cut it. We have to remember that society and technology are constantly changing, so our government should reflect that to an extent.