Conservative
Authoritarian
Once the term conservative had connotations of modesty as in "not flashy".
A conservative basically thought this was the best of all possible worlds and didn't want to rock the boat. This was a good thing. It enabled society to progress in small steps. It favoured the rule of law and democracy.
That's changed.
Now, for instance, a big thread of conservatism wants society to return to the values of our forefathers. This involves a story where things were better in the past when we lived by 'eternal' values.
This involves and maybe creates a blindness to the fact that our forefathers came from many cultures. It's the sort of blindness where being of European descent is taken as the norm for people and culture.
In Canada's history that attitude justified the system of residential schools that took kids from their parents and tried to 'anglicize' them. This resulted in hundreds of children dying in such shameful circumstances that priests were burying kids in unmarked graves without notifying parents.
Many conservatives still value the anglicization idea but need to be blind to it's consequences to prevent cognitive dissonance and then they blindly want us to return to their values of the past.
I must say that I was a little kid in the 1950s and literally experienced their idea of an anglicized society and for me life was very good. Only lately have I realized how rich and privileged my family and their friends were. I thought it normal that kids would have motorboats so they could waterski. But I can attest to that being a very pleasant and carefree time.
I evolved away from that privilege for many reasons and the further away I got the more I discovered that I'd been blind to. Maybe a third of the population of Saint John was francophone but outside of highschool french class you never encountered french speakers. There was even a black ghetto that I didn't learn about till I was in university.
The point is that the further I got from privilege the more it was clear why society was evolving the way it was. There is much to improve but I think society as a whole is better than it was when I was a privileged kid. Now conservatives want us to forget all that and roll back the clock.
They have a technical problem; we live in a democracy and they are a minority. Once, long ago, I went to a Christian mass rally organized by a group called Promise Keepers. Their thesis was that Canada was a white christian nation that was being overwhelmed and that true Canadians needed to rise up and re-assert their authority. It was a bit of a frightening experience for me.
I see the same sentiment in American politics expressed by the idea of "the great replacement"; that there is a left wing plot to flood America with immigrants to replace "true" Americans from power. The demographic shift is occurring and has been predicted for a long time and it's not because of immigration alone. My own increasing awareness is a part of that demographic shift.
The blindness to the past that conservatives need to ward off cognitive dissonance enables a governor to mandate that school children be taught that slaves could benefit from their slavery. That blindness is a kind of lie. Having a lie at the base of their structure of understanding creates a situation where accurate perception of reality is not required. What is required is getting people to accept your set of lies.
An extreme example of this is Donald Trump. He grew up under the tutelage of Norman Vincent Peale: the "power of positive thinking" guy who taught that people will believe anything you say if you say it often enough with conviction.
But we see it throughout conservative politics. All politicians spin what they say - they tailor their comments to the audience. They need to connect. But I see a huge asymmetry - conservatives aren't just spinning words to please an audience. They are outright lying.
The politics of lies is inherently undemocratic and authoritarian. Authoritarian regimes don't want what's best for society. Their blindness prevents them from having any idea about what's best for society. Instead we see small groups jockeying for power.
My impression of this is informed by American politics which provides a pretty clear example. But I see the same phenomenon among conservatives world wide. Certainly its here in Canada though thankfully conservatives are weak here.
The danger of conservatism is that it leads to authoritarianism which leads to disaster. There are other roads to authoritarianism; various religions come to mind or even places like North Korea. Authoritarian countries show the fundamental flaw in authoritarianism. They are war torn and poor.
What do you think?
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.