- 05 Nov 2013 00:25
#14325388
The other funny/sad thing about American conservatives is that they call themselves Republicans. There's nothing more liberal than republicanism.
To be truly conservative, you would have to be a Monarchist - a believer in the "Ancient Regime".
Classical conservatism can be summed up in one word -- Hierarchy -- and Conservatism is 'reactionary' in it's defense of hierarchy against egalitarianism. If there was no revolt from the lower class, there would be no need to 'react'.
If you really want to see the world as a true conservative, you would have to go back to pre-Christian times, because Christianity was the first liberal baby-step toward the French revolution. Before Christianity there was only the Master/Slave mentality. There was no need for Conservatism...because there was no liberalism.
The slave class latched onto the Christian religion because it preached that the master class's attributes (power, cruelty, gluttony , selfishness) were evil. While the poor's attributes (meekness, humility, deference) were good. Christianity preached a 'brotherhood of man', where all people are 'equal before God', where the master class was bound for hell because of their gluttonous/cruel lifestyle.
"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." - Jesus
The Master class co-opted Christianity by becoming Christian themselves and then folding the Catholic church into the power structure and all looked copacetic.
Here's what a good Christian king had to say to a bunch of "rustics"...
“You wretches (peasants) are detestable both on land and on sea. You seek equality with the lords, but you are unworthy to live. Give this message to your fellows: rustics you are, and rustics you will always be. You will remain in bondage, not as before, but incomparably harsher. For as long as we live we will strive to suppress you, and your misery will be an example to posterity.” - Richard II during the Peasants' Revolt in 1381
Then along came the Protestant Reformation; with its "private interpretation" of the Scriptures and then, of course, the Enlightenment, which were two major milestones on the way to the French Revolution.
The Godfather of the conservative movement, Edmund Burke, said the real objective of the French Revolution was "to break all those connections, natural and civil, that regulate and hold together the community by a chain of subordination; to raise soldiers against their officers; servants against their masters; tradesmen against their customers; employees against their employers; tenants against their landlords; curates against their bishops; and children against their parents."
“Poverty is therefore a most necessary and indispensable ingredient in society…It is the source of wealth, since without poverty, there could be no labour” - Patrick Colquhoun, 1745 – 1820