In “Liberalism explained,”[1] we said that liberalism is a philosophy that attempts to explain and direct the affairs of men based on the belief that “…critical and autonomous human reason held the power to discover the truth about life and the world, and to progressively liberate humanity from the ignorance and injustices of the past.[2] Liberals attempt to define the tenets of conservatism as opposites of the concepts and ideologies upon which liberalism rests. But unlike liberalism, conservatism is not an ideology encompassing a sociopolitical program of continuously changing claims, theories, and aims—a thing invented by the mind of man. Rather, conservatism declares the existence of a transcendent moral order in which man attempts to order his soul and society. Therefore, the concepts and tenets of conservatism are not a product of man’s design but recognition of transcendent, unchanging, and everlasting truth.[3]
Without question, the source of that truth was biblical Christianity in Western civilization and especially in the American experience since the arrival of the first colonists. It is in this central concept we see the ultimate distinction between conservatism’s reverence for divine truth and that of liberalism’s changing truth and its inherent relativism. And it is in man’s deference to and defense of this divine truth and order from whence flows the spirit of conservatism. And from conservatism’s spirit is birthed conservative thought and action. In this light we see conservatism as a defense of truth, not truth as a defense of conservatism.
If we are serious in our belief of conservatism’s reverence for transcendent, objective, unchanging truth, we must be careful in describing the “principles” of conservatism when talking of conservative politics because a nation’s politics is a product of its dominant religion, historic experience, and ancient customs. In examining political and social order, Russell Kirk lists six concepts or principles that are reflective of the conservative mindset.[4] Rather than “principles,” perhaps a better word is “attitude” or even “inclination” that is reflective of conservative thought and action. The reader should note that none of the concepts are created by conservatism but rather observed.
Transcendent Moral Order – Meaning, value, purpose, and moral authority flow from a transcendent God who created the laws of nature and laws of human nature. We can know this moral order because universal truths are evident in His creation and through the revelation to the ancient Hebrews and first century Christians. Being created in His image, man bears the divine imprint of the Creator from which he derives his value and purpose.
Social Continuity – Social continuity produced order, justice, and freedom over many centuries of long and painful social experience. However, rightly defined and applied, these concepts are seen as not of human construction but man’s expressions of the transcendent moral order over time. Social continuity is not anti-change nor does it mean inflexibility of society. It does mean that interruption or disturbance of social continuity must be gradual, discriminating, and careful.
Prescription – Conservatism relies on the principle of prescription—adherence to things established by immemorial usage including rights and morals. Habits, customs, and conventions of past generations stand tested and true and therefore are prescriptive as opposed to baseless innovations and tinkering of humanistic man regarding his morals, politics, and tastes.
Prudence – By prudence is meant someone that is judicious, farsighted, and careful. It is the chief virtue of a statesman, and any public measure or consideration must be concerned with long-term consequences. Having weighed the consequences, the conservative tends toward caution, restraint, and reflection. Chronic reformers, liberals tend toward the quick fix for temporary advantage or popularity. Ignoring the prescriptive past and nature of man, liberals become casualties of the law of unintended consequences.
Variety – Social institutions and modes of life long established are preferred over the “…narrowing uniformity and deadening egalitarianism” of liberalism. Conservatives recognize that healthy societies require hierarchy which implies orders and classes that reflect differences of skill, ability, possessions, and status. The variety valued by the conservative is not that of the liberal oxymoron of diversity and forced equality.
Imperfectability – Conservatism recognizes the imperfectability of man and therefore the impossibility of creating a perfect social order. Evil, maladjustments, and suffering will be present in every society due to man’s fallen nature. However, the conservative sees that these afflictions can be reduced in a rightly ordered, just, and free society if care is given to maintenance of established and time-tested institutional and moral safeguards and the observance of prudent reforms.
Another means to contrast humanism’s contemporary liberalism with conservatism is to look at truth and time. For the conservative, truth is absolute and therefore timeless, that is, things of the highest value are not affected by the passage of time.[5] Liberals often decry conservatives for being antiquarian, wanting to live in the past, or wishing to turn back the clock to a time from which mankind really wanted to escape. The liberal mantra is progress. Progress, being oriented to time, fails to apprehend those timeless truths that bring order to the soul and society. Conservatives search for those permanent things, those moorings to which one may cling as the river of time sweeps by toward an unattainable infinity.[6]
Men crave “…systematic and harmonious arrangements…” which we call order. There are two spheres of order necessary for any culture to survive in the long term. One is order of the soul by which we govern ourselves and is of first importance. The second is social order by which we organize how we live in relation to others.[7] In the political and other institutions of public life, liberals and conservatives present different avenues for civil social order and vie for preference. Faced with an increasingly humanistic worldview in a society that is ignorant of the nation’s founding principles, some in American conservative circles question the necessity of an order of the soul in achieving a conservative order of society. In their hunger for victory at the ballot box, some conservatives wish to maximize certain conservative positions such as limited government, lower taxes, private property, and a market economy while at the same time minimizing or abandoning altogether the moral aspects of the conservative cause (e.g., opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage). However, without moral order of the soul, self-absorption looses passion and impulse which fragments any nation’s unifying central cultural vision and disorders society. In its end, a disordered society inevitably leads to either anarchy or totalitarianism, a truth that is universally validated by an examination of the historical record.
Abandonment of the order of the soul is an abandonment of the conservative spirit—man’s deference to and defense of divine truth and order. Those that abandon the conservative spirit in favor of selected conservative positions perhaps more palpable to the prevailing humanistic worldview are merely pseudo conservatives. In the words of C. S. Lewis, we see their end and possibly the end of conservatism in America.
We continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible…In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.[8]
Larry G. Johnson
Sources:
[1] Larry G. Johnson, “Liberalism explained,” culturewarrior.net, May 2, 2014.
[2] Christian Smith, The Secular Revolution, (Berkeley, California: The University of California Press, 2003), pp. 53-54.
[3] Larry G. Johnson, Ye shall be as gods – Humanism and Christianity – The Battle for Supremacy in the American Cultural Vision, (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House Publishers, 2011), pp. 216-217.
[4] Russell Kirk, The Essential Russell Kirk-Selected Essays, ed, George A. Panichas, (Wilmington, Delaware: ISI Books, 2007), pp. 7-9.
[5] Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences, (Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press, 1948), p. 52.
[6] Johnson, Ye shall be as gods, pp. 216-217.
[7] Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order, (Washington, D. C.,: Regnery Gateway, 1991), pp. 5-6.
[8] C. S. Lewis, “The Abolition of Man,” The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics, (New York: Harper One, 2002), p. 704.
