Description

This article is from the Conservatism FAQ, by Jim Kalb kalb@aya.yale.edu with numerous contributions by others.

5.4 If conservatism is so great, why are most people seriously involved in studying and dealing with social issues liberals?

Conservatives believe it is impossible to define and control the
considerations relevant to social life accurately enough to make a
technological approach to society possible. They reject efforts to
divide human affairs into compartments to be dealt with by experts as
part of a comprehensive plan for promoting goals like equality and
prosperity. Academic and other policy experts are defined as such by
their participation in such efforts. It would be surprising if they
did not prefer perspectives that give those efforts free rein, such
as welfare-state liberalism, over perspectives that are suspicious of
them.

Continue to:

• prev: 5.3 What's all this stuff about community and tradition? The groups that matter these days are groups like yuppies, gays, and senior citizens that people join as individuals based on interests and perspectives rather than tradition.
• Index
• next: 5.5 How can tradition do anything but endorse the way things happen to be--which at present means established liberalism?