Long before these were political leanings, they were character traits.
Essentially conservatism is what tamed the chaos, created the foundation of society, built the cities and factories that produced all the goods we’ve come to rely on. It is the stabilizing agent. It defines the common rules by which we are all able to be playing a common game with a hierarchy that makes common goals possible.
Liberalism is the return to chaos; the unpredictability that fuels creative process that designed the cities and fueled the breakthroughs. It’s what keeps us from becoming too stodgy, too rule-oriented, to “fixed” to be adaptable to changes that come along in the environment. It’s what reminds us that too much order and exclusivity is intolerable to the society.
Either of these in total control spells a unique kind of threat. They are complimentary; the yin and the yang, the push and the pull.
The question then: why is it you think that we have started treating each side of the equation as adversarial (tribal) rather than essential complimentary parts of a balanced whole?
(That “the other side has gone too far” is not really a valid reason or excuse for anything except social dissolution)
© 2026 – SoulSequel
7 responses to “Liberalism vs Conservatism”
What if the current social situation is so broken beyond the possibility of repair that a hard reset needs to happen?
@Jear77
That’s a good question.
@Jear77
I don’t think such an assessment can come from a drop-out or isolationist/decontructivist (essentially neo-Marxist) mindset: because such a map of meaning heavily biases perceptions in this area.
Confirmation bias jumps too early to this conclusion while jumping to avoid any commitment to small steps in the right direction.
I’ve mentioned to you the number of times you’ve dismissed a small probable solution just because it is not an all-powerful absolute solution. My hope Is that you are starting to see how this biased affects your perceptions without conscious awareness.
We have a very complex society that despite its faults, has a majority of it us living in relative peace, playing a similar game with relative predictability. The lights are on the heat is working the sewage is running. There are worthwhile goals to reach for both individually and collectively.
I know we are raised to think it is proper to throw something away just because it is marginally ineffective in some way. And to conflate the marginal into the Intolerable.
But Society is a far more complex machine than a toaster a microwave a computer or a TV.
@griz then what of the belief in the apocalypse? Isn’t that the ultimate reset?
@Jear77
Or the Big Crunch.
Or the biblical flood.
They do happen. But the point of caution may be the arrogance to think we know when it’s time, how to go about it . . . And more importantly the value of what we are willing to throw away to get it.
We actually have a horrendously bad track record when it comes to trying to exercise this measure of wisdom.
I do not think people are either black or white. They are mixtures of all sorts.
I am a generally very liberal person, my own self.
As is any real Christian.
(I am more liberal then most real Christians.)
@five2one
But why the zeal to split into factions?
Ie, to say any one of a conservative personality is not a real Christian?