Is the EU is Conservative?
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?â€
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 conservativesâ€.
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 aristocracyâ€
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 oppositeâ€
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 aristocracyâ€.
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 bettersâ€. 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
the true goal of conservatism is to establish an aristocracy, which is a social and psychological condition of inequality
Economic inequality and regressive taxation, while certainly welcomed by the aristocracy, are best understood as a means to their actual goal, which is simply to be aristocrats.
More generally, it is crucial to conservatism that the people must literally love the order that dominates them
People who believe that the aristocracy rightfully dominates society because of its intrinsic superiority are conservatives.
Democracy, for them, is not about the mechanisms of voting and office-holding.
Conservatism in every place and time is founded on deception
The opposite of conservatism is democracy, and contempt for democracy is a constant thread in the history of conservative argument
The deceptions of conservatism today are especially sophisticated, simply because culture today is sufficiently democratic that the myths of earlier times will no longer suffice.
Instead, conservatism has argued that society ought to be organized in a hierarchy of orders and classes and controlled by its uppermost hierarchical stratum, the aristocracy.
The real situation with conservatism and freedom is best understood in historical context. Conservatism constantly changes, always adapting itself to provide the minimum amount of freedom that is required to hold together a dominant coalition in the society
For thousands of years, conservatism was universally understood as being in opposition to democracy. Having lost much of its ability to attack democracy openly, conservatism has tried in recent years to redefine the word “democracy” while engaging in deception to make the substance of democracy unthinkable.
Conservatism continually twists the language of conscience into its opposite. It has no choice: conservatism is unjust, and cannot survive except by pretending to be the opposite of what it is.
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)
If you just make the little mental jump, and realise that our modern self-appointed bureaucratic/liberal elite (”the chattering class”) IS the aristocracy of our day, then the article makes pretty much perfect sense.
Andrew, yes exactly my point.