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Today’s sharply polarized and strategically focused political parties fit poorly with a constitutional system that anticipates collaboration as well as competition within and across separated institutions. As we initially wrote, … Read More
The decisive objection to any conservatism which deserves to be called such. It is that by its very nature it cannot offer an alternative to the direction in which we … Read More
Last week’s entry concluded with some inquiries about the apparent lack of awareness that the actions of “no-government conservatives” have consequences. Destructive actions have an annoying tendency of making things … Read More
The typical conservative is indeed usually a man of very strong moral convictions. What I mean is that he has no political principles which enable him to work with people … Read More
To live and work successfully with others requires more than faithfulness to one's concrete aims. It requires an intellectual commitment to a type of order in which, even on issues … Read More
In a world whose 21st Century inter-connectedness and complexity are no doubt entirely beyond the visions of even the most imaginative among those of prior generations [and surely beyond the … Read More
[O]ur political system is set up in a way in which it’s very hard for an opposition party to be open to participating in any solutions to that because that … Read More
Men often oppose a thing, merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike. But if they … Read More
I’d like to continue with more observations and commentary on the conservative principles described in the essay “The Essence of Conservatism” by conservative icon Russell Kirk. As I noted in … Read More
I’ve recently shared quotes/comments from the essay “The Essence of Conservatism,” by conservative icon Russell Kirk. There are a number of additional explanations for and about the foundations of the … Read More
Conservatism proper is a legitimate, probably necessary, and certainly widespread attitude of opposition to drastic change – F.A. Hayek, from his essay “Why I Am Not A Conservative.”
Conservatives are too prone to engage in zero-sum thinking (either I keep my money or the government takes it). They fail to appreciate the possibility of positive sum solutions to … Read More
Conservatives tend to be pessimistic because they doubt that more possibilities will make lives on the whole better. They believe that there are obstacles that stand in the way of … Read More
To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to … Read More
Specifically, [the need for closure] fosters the tendency to seize on information that affords closure and to freeze on closure once it has been attained. The need for closure, whether … Read More
[A]uthoritarians are known to be high on the need for closure, yet another trait that’s linked to defensiveness and biased reasoning. The need for closure, notes Arie Kruglanski, means being … Read More
Now consider another related trait implicated in our divide over reality: the ‘need for cognitive closure.’ This describes discomfort with uncertainty and a desire to resolve it into a firm … Read More
Conservatives take a dim view of progress. They are not so foolish as to deny that great advances have been made in science, technology, medicine, communication, management, education, and so … Read More
[There is] the commonly held notion that conservatives are especially likely to value tradition, conformity, social order, and consensual adherence to rules, norms, and conventions….It is also consistent with the … Read More
Conservatives, argues researcher Philip Tetlock of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, are less tolerant of compromise; see the world in ‘us’ versus ‘them’ terms; are more willing … Read More
Kekes * argues that ‘the fundamental aim of conservatism is to conserve the political arrangements that have shown themselves to be conducive to good lives’. And, he continues, ‘the conservative … Read More
Traditionalism and hostility to social innovation were central to Mannheim’s … sociological analysis of conservatism. Rossiter … too, defined situational conservatism in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences as … Read More
In a rapidly-evolving world, leading the way seems to be a better approach than trying to hold back the tides of change. Conservatism has much to offer, and a more … Read More
[I]t is reasonable to hypothesize that individuals who are physiologically and psychologically responsive to negative stimuli will tend to endorse public policies that minimize tangible threats by giving prominence to … Read More
The history of the world is simply the chronicle of what has happened because of the deeds of a small number of ordinary people who had extraordinary levels of commitment … Read More
Conservatives … have a stronger preference for things that are familiar, stable, and predictable….Conservatives—at least, the subset prone to authoritarianism—also show a stronger emotional sensitivity to threats to the social … Read More
‘Voters are basically lazy. Reason requires a high degree of discipline, of concentration; impression is easier…. The emotions are more easily roused, closer to the surface, more malleable….’
Fear makes man unwise in the three great departments of human conduct: his dealings with nature, his dealings with other men, and his dealings with himself. Until you have admitted … Read More
As the … research suggests, conservatism is largely a defensive ideology — and therefore, much more appealing to people who go through life sensitive and highly attuned to aversive or … Read More
Mass movements ultimately need a disaffected population … people who are either economically or culturally dispossessed. Those isolated individuals need to feel part of something bigger than themselves. They need … Read More
An important component of conservative psychology is repressed or displaced fear and the related sense of feeling threatened by various events, ideas and people around them. Conservatives see the world … Read More
You’ve got to feel some sympathy for authoritarian followers at this point, don’t you, because they get nailed coming and going. First of all, they rely on the authorities in … Read More
[B]eing the most effective at exaggerating the dangers the country faces and preying on voter anger is not an achievement; it is a moral failure.
Can you also sense from these items the energy, the commitment, the submission, and the zeal that authoritarian followers are ready to give to their in-groups, and the satisfaction they … Read More
The pessimism within significant sectors of the GOP is more than the unhappiness partisans typically feel when the other side is in power. It’s rooted in a belief that things … Read More
Authoritarianism is not a new, untested concept in the American electorate. Since the rise of Nazi Germany, it has been one of the most widely studied ideas in social science. … Read More
As we showed in our analysis of the Clinton/Obama primary fight in 2008, in our book, as well as in analysis of election data from 2010 and 2012, what distinguishes … Read More
We may view ourselves as belonging to certain groups with what we perceive to be clear boundaries and conditions for inclusion. But in the end, we each share an arguably … Read More
Several months ago, in another of his excellent efforts, Terrance Heath examined recent legislative efforts by certain increasingly-reprehensible factions of the Republican Party to make innocent victims and/or already-suffering members … Read More
This seems like a series of fairly simple questions: If one is advocating for an issue but must resort to deceit if not outright lying to persuade others, what does … Read More
Several months ago, more than two dozen United States Senators held an all-night vigil and speech-making about climate change. Their efforts focused on the urgent need for an appropriate demonstration … Read More
A few months ago, Bob Cesca offered an interesting article entitled Debunking the Top 10 Most Egregious Republican Lies. It was a litany of the same, tired nonsense viewed from … Read More
Nowadays the members of one tribe (calling themselves liberals, progressives, and Democrats) hold sharply different views and values than the members of the other (conservatives, Tea Partiers, and Republicans). Each … Read More
The prospect that one’s empirical arguments will be shown to be false creates the identity-threatening risk for her that she or others will come to form the belief that her … Read More
When collective decisionmaking turns on facts or other propositions that are understood to bear special significance for the interests, standing, or commitments of opposing groups … identity-protective cognition* will predictably … Read More
When they perceive that adoption of a policy will impugn the status of their group, they resist information about the utility of that policy as a form of psychological self-defense. … Read More
Social psychologists have documented that persons readily, and correctly, discern that individuals who hold factual beliefs different from their own have formed those views to fit their group commitments. The … Read More
We naturally impute credibility—including knowledge and shared interests—to putative experts whose cultural outlooks are congenial to our own. Accordingly, to the extent we defer to credible experts when sorting through … Read More
[P]eople do not arrive at their political positions by directly consulting their values to form a political position. For example, people rely to a great extent on the position of … Read More
A few additional thoughts about issues raised in my two most recent posts about how we automatically process new information to either accept or reject it depending on its relationship … Read More
