eurealist.co.uk

Interesting poll results I still do not see the Tories winning
Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Tories gain ground on Labour: “Tony Blair effectively launched Labour’s campaign a fortnight ago with his helicopter tour, the six pledges and the party’s spring conference. He even attempted to bypass the Westminster media with a special meet-the-voters day courtesy of Channel Five.

But despite all this effort the ICM survey, which puts Labour on 37%, shows the government’s lead over the Conservatives is down four points in the last month and has fallen from nine to only three points since December.

For all the frenzied activity in advance of a likely May 5 poll, it looks as though Labour’s pre-election strategy - being masterminded by Alan Milburn and former director of communications Alastair Campbell - is in danger of proving a flop.”

The ICM poll also shows that Gordon Brown has replaced Tony Blair as Labour’s biggest electoral asset with the chancellor enjoying the same kind of cross-party respect that the prime minister had before his 1997 and 2001 general election victories.

The survey shows that Mr Blair’s political appeal is confined to Labour’s core voters who still see him as likeable and caring. But among the wider electorate the prime minister is regarded as arrogant, out of touch and untrustworthy and it appears that his hopes of rekindling his “marriage” with voters generally may prove shortlived.

While Mr Brown gets positive ratings from Liberal Democrat and Conservative voters they now see Mr Blair as a positive liability.

Philip E. Agre Department of Information Studies University of California, Los Angeles
Writes an article about conservatives “What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?”

Liberals in the United States have been losing political debates to conservatives for a quarter century. In order to start winning again, liberals must answer two simple questions: what is conservatism, and what is wrong with it? As it happens, the answers to these questions are also simple:

Q: What is conservatism?
A: Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.

Q: What is wrong with conservatism?
A: Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world.

“From the pharaohs of ancient Egypt to the self-regarding thugs of ancient Rome to the glorified warlords of medieval and absolutist Europe, in nearly every urbanized society throughout human history, there have been people who have tried to constitute themselves as an aristocracy. These people and their allies are the conservatives”.

Initially I thought Agre had gone off his rocker, I am still not sure, because he seems to be turning logic on its head to arrive at his destination. “Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy”

To arrive at the argument that it is conservatism which is the domination of society by an aristocracy, Agre does what he claims in the article that conservatives do he “twists the language of conscience into its opposite”
For a start the definition of Conservatism is way off beam

The dictionary says conservatism is “A political philosophy or attitude emphasizing respect for traditional institutions, distrust of government activism, and opposition to sudden change in the established order” Not as Agre suggests “Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy”.

Aristocracy
A hereditary ruling class; nobility. a. Government by a ruling class. b. A state or country having this form of government. a. Government by the citizens deemed to be best qualified to lead. b. A state having such a government. A group or class considered superior to others.

Of course this argument falls down if Agre uses any of the later meanings of the word . “Government by a ruling class” “Government by the citizens deemed to be best qualified to lead.” “A group or class considered superior to others” then we could use that to exactly describe what is happening in the European Union. Listen to any argument from Europhiles and it boils down to “the people do not know what is best for them so they should leave decision to their betters”. Do these Eurocrats for instance offer their plans for approval of the people? Not if they can help it they don’t, to them we are merely the peasants who need to be guided into a brand new world of EU state benevolence.

So is the EU conservatism, well no because conservatives believe in the established order and basing change on that which has been learned through time, the EU is doing everything it can to destroy the established order and install a new kind of order based on the principals of their class ruling, because they know best.

Many of Agre`s comments about Conservatism can be directly correlated to the European Union.

The tactics of conservatism vary widely by place and time. But the most central feature of conservatism is deference: a psychologically internalized attitude on the part of the common people that the aristocracy are better people than they are

An underlying notion of conservative politics is that words and phrases of language are like territory in warfare: owned and controlled by one side or the other

Although I do not disagree with the main thrust of Agre`s article, I would suggest that to equate conservatives with his argument is to misunderstand what conservatism actually is, and to deny that his arguments can equally be applied to any Toleration or Communist state conditions so they can appear in either right wing or left wing states, the important point that “domination of society by an aristocracy” has no meaning in relation to conservative thought.

My thanks to Cabalamat Journal for the original link.

For a discussion on conservative values.

Conservatism Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)